jpm_asset_mgmt
  • Investment Strategies

    Investment Options

    • Alternatives
    • Beta Strategies
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Multi-Asset Solutions

    Capabilities & Solutions

    • ETFs
    • Pension Strategy & Analytics
    • Global Insurance Solutions
    • Outsourced CIO
    • Sustainable Investing
  • Insights

    Market Insights

    • Market Insights Overview
    • Eye on the Market
    • Guide to the Markets
    • Guide to Alternatives
    • Market Updates

    Portfolio Insights

    • Portfolio Insights Overview
    • Alternatives
    • Asset Class Views
    • Currency
    • Equity
    • ETF Perspectives
    • Fixed Income
    • Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions
    • Sustainable Investing

    Retirement Insights

    • Retirement Insights Overview
    • Essential Elements of a Sound Retirement System
    • Building Better Retirement Portfolios
  • Resources
    • Center for Investment Excellence Podcasts
    • Insights App
    • Library
    • Multimedia
  • About us
  • Contact Us
Skip to main content
  • English
  • Role
  • Country
  • Client Reporting
Search
Menu
CLOSE
Search
  1. Home
  2. Insights
  3. Portfolio Insights
  4. Alternatives Insights
  5. Global Alternatives Outlook
  6. Foreward

  • Share
  • LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
  • Download
  • Print
  • Actions
  • LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    Download Print

What is essential?

Anton Pil, Global Head of Alternatives

“Essential” may not have been chosen as Merriam-Webster’s 2020 Word of the Year, but it might have been. It was, after all, the year when we came to appreciate anew our essential workers, particularly our heroic frontline health professionals. 

The year also led many of us to reflect on what was most essential in our own lives – family, health, home, friends and, of course, a good internet connection.

As investors, we saw that disciplined risk-taking was essential to success in 2020 as markets rewarded those with the confidence to lean in while the world was pulling back. Our own conviction to act on a range of market dislocations stemmed from our more than 50 years of alternatives investment experience and the unique cross-alternative asset class insights that we continually share. Lessons learned in 2008 and 2009, for example, convinced us that swift central bank action and fiscal stimulus would jump-start a V-shaped recovery. At the same time, real-time data exchange from our 14 investment engines and thousands of individual investments pointed to underlying consumer strength and resilient fundamentals. 

So where does that leave us for 2021? What is essential in the year ahead? Alternatives, perhaps once considered optional in investors’ portfolios, have indeed become essential. Facing stretched valuations in traditional markets, limited correlation benefits between fixed income and equities, and persistently low bond yields with asymmetric risk, investors have made a decided turn to alternatives in the pursuit of alpha, income and diversification.

To guide our clients in these pursuits, in our 2021 Global Alternatives Outlook, we challenged our diverse group of CEOs, CIOs and strategists from our USD 150 billion alternatives platform to provide a 12- to 18-month outlook for their respective markets and explore their most promising investment ideas over that time horizon.

We hope you find it helpful, if not essential, in navigating 2021. Please let us know if we can be of help in implementing any ideas presented or if you need additional information from any of our contributors.

On behalf of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, thank you for your continued trust and confidence. 

OVERVIEWS AND OUTLOOKS BY ASSET CLASS

macroeconomics
Macroeconomic

Why the recovery has only just begun

Learn more
private credit
Private credit

Opportunities where the central banks missed

Learn more
asset allocation
Asset allocation

Enhancing alpha, income, diversification

Learn more
infrastructure
Infrastructure

How core is your core infrastructure?

Learn more
hedge fund
Hedge funds

Momentum for growth, despite COVID

Learn more
real estate
Real estate

Opportunities as megatrends accelerate

Learn more
private equity
Private equity

3 considerations for a competitive market

Learn more
transport
Transport

Green tech—a key driver for investments

Learn more
Markets Alternatives Portfolio Construction
J.P. Morgan Asset Management

  • About us
  • Investment stewardship
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookie policy
  • Binding corporate rules
  • Sitemap
Opens LinkedIn site in new window
J.P. Morgan

  • J.P. Morgan
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • Chase

READ IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION. CLICK HERE >

The value of investments may go down as well as up and investors may not get back the full amount invested.

Copyright 2021 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved.