Tracking the next big wave in investing can help you outperform the market. Alphapro.ai’s search tool lets you see which companies are talking about emerging themes in their earnings calls.
While the stock market as a whole has historically delivered roughly a 10% annualized return over the long run, not all sectors or themes tend to perform in the same way. For instance, so far in 2025 (as of September 16), basic materials have generated an excellent 25.8% return, while the consumer defensive sector (including discount and grocery stores, household products, and packaged foods) has delivered only a far lagging 4.43% return.
Also, even within a single sector, the performance of different themes can diverge widely. Let’s take the example of the tech sector, which has been everyone’s favorite for the last few years. In 2024, the S&P 500 Information Technology index surged 37%, outperforming the broader market’s 23.3% gain without much effort. But if you drill down a bit further, you would notice that it was the semiconductor companies, especially those powering AI infrastructure, that drove much of that growth. On the other hand, legacy hardware or traditional IT services companies hardly captured much of the upside.
The point we are trying to make is that investors who can correctly identify and ride emerging themes, whether it’s data centers, green energy, or shifting trade policies, may have a greater chance to outperform the market rather than just match it. And that’s exactly the core idea behind thematic investing.
But how do you figure out where the next wave might come from?
One of the best places to look is earnings calls, where company leaders talk openly about what’s driving their business and what they see ahead. And that’s exactly where Alphapro.ai’s search function gives active investors an edge. Let’s first explore how thematic investing works. And then we will talk about how Alphapro.ai makes thematic investing easier by letting you search earnings call transcripts from hundreds of companies in one go.
Understanding Thematic Investing and Why It Can Deliver Better Returns
Thematic investing is, at its core, about investing in ideas rather than industries. So, instead of dividing the market into technology, energy, or consumer staples, thematic investors look for long-term forces that can shape market movements. Charles Schwab describes thematic investing as investing in trends that shape the future of the economy, whether that means breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, the transition to clean energy, or demographic shifts like aging populations. MSCI makes a similar point, stating that emerging themes are not bound to sectors or regions; they are structural changes in the market that can lead to investment opportunities.
This makes thematic investing a bit different from both sector investing and more traditional styles like value or growth investing. For example, a sector investor might invest in the broader “technology” sector while a value investor might look for cheap companies within that sector.
A thematic investor, on the other hand, is more interested in questions like: Which parts of technology are going to reshape the world? That’s how, in recent years, semiconductors tied to AI infrastructure have hugely outperformed legacy IT hardware and services.
The key idea behind thematic investing is that by identifying high-growth trends early, you can get exposure to emerging themes before the rest of the market. It’s more like finding “structural growth opportunities” that the market is yet to price in. Plus, there is also a diversification benefit because themes often cut across multiple industries and geographies. For example, you can build a portfolio around AI that might include chip makers, data centers, energy providers, cloud platforms, and companies offering AI-driven products and services.
There is strong academic evidence that supports the potential of thematic investing. Researchers found that funds with stronger thematic concentration significantly outperformed peers, generating four-factor alphas of more than 4% per year. But of course, thematic investing comes with its own risks too. Hype can lead to inflated valuations, and timing can work against you if you are too late to enter. But despite these nuances, investors who can identify and ride structural themes well in advance have a chance to beat the market.
How Alphapro.ai’s Search Function Brings It All Together
So how do you actually put all this into practice? This is where Alphapro.ai’s search function comes in. It gives you an intuitive yet powerful way to scan through earnings call transcripts from hundreds of companies in one go and discover themes that management teams are actually talking about.
Let’s say you believe the next wave of growth in AI will come from data centers. Instead of sifting through dozens of transcripts manually, you just type “data centers” into Alphapro.ai’s search bar. Within seconds, you will get a list of companies that mentioned the term in their most recent earnings calls, along with the exact context of how they’re thinking about it. You can see that 72 companies were talking about data centers in their recent earnings calls, with Nvidia taking the lead. Also, the green lines indicate that Nvidia is talking about data centers in a positive context (while red lines indicate negative contexts).
Now let’s take another AI-related theme: Agentic AI. It’s still an emerging concept, but it’s gaining traction quite fast. By searching the term in Alphapro.ai, you can instantly find out which companies are starting to discuss it, giving you a front-row seat to track where the momentum may be building.
The search function doesn’t help you find growth stories only; it helps in risk management, too. Suppose you’re concerned about risks like tariffs or a recession. You can run those terms through the same search function to see which companies are flagging them as challenges.
That way, you can stay alert to headwinds that could affect your investments.
So, Alphapro.ai’s search function gives you an actionable tool to discover themes as well as risk factors directly from unfiltered company-investor discussions. It’s where themes first appear, much before they become mainstream.