Investment Themes

Interactive Brokers’ Investment Themes research tool represents a significant evolution in how retail and institutional investors can approach thematic investing. Powered by Reflexivity and providing data on companies in the S&P 1500, this sophisticated platform feature allows traders to identify, analyze, and capitalize on emerging market trends and sectors poised for potential growth.

The IBKR Investment Themes tool organizes investment opportunities into clearly defined thematic categories, ranging from established sectors like artificial intelligence and renewable energy to emerging areas such as space exploration and genomics. What sets this tool apart is its comprehensive approach to theme construction—each theme is built using a rigorous methodology that incorporates fundamental research, technical analysis, and industry expertise.

For investors seeking exposure to specific trends, the platform provides remarkable granularity. Users can drill down into individual themes to discover constituent stocks, ETFs, and other instruments that provide targeted exposure. This curated approach saves investors countless hours of independent research while ensuring they don’t overlook promising opportunities within each thematic category.

To access Investment Themes on the Desktop, the investor clicks on the site map in the lower left-hand corner. On the site map in the Research area, they click on Investment Themes to bring up the research tool.

At the top center of the page is a search bar where the investor can search for company and themes. The investor types in oil and companies with oil in it as well as themes with oil in it will populate the drop-down box. Click on either a company or a theme to dive deeper into the data. Clicking on a company will bring up a company overview with a description of the company in the upper left-hand corner. In the upper right-hand corner is a performance comparison to their industry piers for one month, three months, six months, and one year.

Below the company description are five headlines that can be clicked for further information:

• Investment Theme Exposure: This shows a list of all the investment themes that the company falls under with a description of the theme itself. If the investor clicks on the theme, it opens for more details, and the investor can click on the investment theme overview to see a list of other companies with that same theme.
• Brand and Product: Gives a list of products and brands that the company sells and owns, click on the arrow for a deeper dive
• Competitors: Click on the arrow to see the top investment themes in common and a company overview
• Country Exposure: A list of countries and how the company interacts with them, click on the arrow for more details
• Regional Exposure: a high-level description of each region, click on the arrow for more details.

If the investor chooses an investment theme instead of a specific company, they are brought to the specific Investment Theme page which gives a description of the theme, has a performance chart of an equally weighted basket for a one, three, six months, and one year period. Underneath is a list of companies that are in the investment theme. The investor can click on the arrow to learn more about the company, see quotes. add to a Watchlist or see the company overview previously described.

Underneath the search bar are popular investment themes displayed in sets of four with the total number of companies in that theme. The investor can click on the box to be brough to the Investment theme page.

Directly below the investor can access all the investment themes by either clicking “All” or clicking on the number or letter the theme begins with to see the list.

Investors can also access investor themes for a specific company by clicking on a company in their Portfolio or Watchlist, scrolling down and clicking on Investment Themes. The company theme page will come up via the Fundamental Explorer tool and the investor can access the Investor Theme tool by clicking on “Explore All Investment Themes”