The evidence is clear. Implementation is the gap.
Decades of capital markets research consistently show: rules-based, systematic investment approaches achieve better risk-adjusted returns after costs than discretionary portfolio management. This holds true for equities as well as multi-asset strategies.
The reason is structural: systematic approaches eliminate behavioural biases, reduce emotional decision-making, and enable consistent implementation across market cycles.
The available systematic offering consists for the most part of passive index funds/ETFs. Passive solutions are an important first step – cheap, transparent, mostly broadly diversified.
Factor strategies, however, generate empirically robust premiums with decades of academic and practical grounding. Rules-based allocation models enable dynamic, evidence-based management of risk and return. AI expands the field of possibilities.
In the Swiss market, only few advanced factor strategies, rules-based allocation models, and other systematic approaches are available in investable form – neither for institutional nor for private investors.
Through its own strategy development, through partnerships with specialised managers, and through support in market access, S³ helps more systematic solutions reach Swiss investors.