INVESTOR’S GUIDE • ROUNDTABLEthat we’ll stop talking about stocks based on
what country they’re in. Investors are going
to harness new technology to build globally
diversified portfolios, weighted toward sectors
where there are strong reasons to be invested.
Same with growth and value. I’ve watched
energy go from 18% of the S&P in the mid-
aughts to under 1% now. I’m sure it can mean-
revert and go back to being 3% or 4%. But it’s
not going back to 18%. Our grandkids are not
going to be in vehicles powered by dinosaur
bones. Value right now is basically energy
stocks and banks. And banks are another area
where there is no secular growth anymore:
Once PayPal got into the room, and Rocket
Mortgage and Lemonade and Root and all
of these new disrupters? So we are trying to
reorient investors’ minds around the concept:
It’s not U.S. versus rest of world or value versusG
RIM NEWS about a resurgent pandemic on one
hand, exuberant stock markets on the other.
That was the paradox confronting the members
of our annual investor roundtable when we
gathered to talk about 2021. Fresh hopes about
the arrival of a COVID vaccine, of course, were
the updraft lifting those soaring stocks. Our panelists shared the
optimism, though they had sharply contrasting ideas about how
to play a post-coronavirus recovery. (Bet on beaten-up blue chips,
or stick with young disrupters? Old-school banks, or fintech?)
They shared the concern that stocks could lose their luster
quickly if a return to economic normal led to rising interest rates.
And they agreed on one other interesting point: Diversity in
management and enlightened treatment of employees were good
things for shareholders too.
This year’s panel included Savita Subramanian, head of U.S.
equity and quantitative strategy and head of global ESG research
at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz
Wealth Management and author of How I Invest My Money; David
Eiswert, head of the top-performing T. Rowe Price Global Stock
Fund; Sarah Ketterer, CEO and fundamental portfolio manager of
Causeway Capital; and Mallun Yen, founder and general partner of
early stage venture capital firm Operator Collective. What follows
are edited excerpts from our discussion; read more at Fortune.com.FORTUNE: Investors are absorbing two big pieces of potential
good news—U.S. election results that look positive for business,
and major progress on COVID vaccines. How might those fac-
tors play out in 2021? Should investors be looking at beaten-up
“value” sectors like banks and industrials?DAVID EISWERT: I don’t think it’s quite as simple as value and
growth, because the virus has caused this situation of extremes.
You can buy growth companies today that have extremely negative
business fundamentals. Mastercard is going to be a great stock in
the next couple years. (See “The Conversation” in this issue.) But
Mastercard lost all its cross-border business to COVID, so the stock
has struggled at times this year.FORTUNE: Speaking of borders, U.S. markets performed far bet-
ter than most foreign markets through the pandemic. Are there
international stocks that investors should pivot to?JOSH BROWN: What I think will be different 10 years from now isSav ita Subramanian- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
We ’ve had $1 0 trillion, globally, of fiscal
and monetary support from central banks.
We haven’t even seen the full impact yet.”
SARAH KETTERER • CAUSEWAY CAPITALSUBRAMANIAN & BROWN: REED YOUNG