LeadAt TradePMR by Robinhood’s SYNERGY26 conference in Washington, D.C., market experts shared where they see opportunities and risks for the rest of 2026. paragraph
Financial advisors and their clients have already had an eventful year.
The first six months of 2026 brought geopolitical drama, more questions than answers around interest rates, and one mega IPO, all while the narrative around artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies continues to play out.
To help advisors make sense of it all, TradePMR by Robinhood invited Steph Guild, Robinhood’s Chief Investment Officer and Head of Robinhood Asset Management, and Sarah Pinto, Head of Robinhood Ventures, to share their perspectives at the SYNERGY26 conference in Washington, D.C.
From portfolio theory to private markets, here are some themes that stood out.
Is Modern Portfolio Theory Dead?
To kick off her keynote, Guild surprised many attendees with a bold assertion: In her view, Modern Portfolio Theory is dead and indexing investing went with it.
“It's no longer a stock market. It's a market of stocks,” Guild said, adding that her research finds that index investing isn’t meeting the needs of many investors anyway. “The natural tailwinds for index investing — lower interest rates, lower taxes, a deficit that doesn't matter, a generation of people and companies [that are] investing versus spending — are gone.”
“That, to me, spells opportunity to sift through it and pick themes and pick stocks.”
[Hear More: Steph Guild on the Synergize Podcast]
Private Markets Continue to Offer Opportunities
With companies staying private longer than they have in the past, investors are looking for ways to get invested sooner, said Pinto.
“In the past 25 years, we've seen an increasingly large amount of wealth creation and value creation happen in the private markets,” she said.
Pinto added that 15 years ago, companies typically would go public once they achieved an 11-figure value. That isn’t happening as often today, she said.
“Actually, the number of public companies has been halved in the last 25 years, and we now see companies like SpaceX and OpenAI and Anthropic reach close to, or over, a trillion dollars in enterprise value before they go public.”
Only about 12% of Americans qualify as accredited investors, she said, but even those who can invest in private markets often have a hard time because of inaccessibility, high minimums, illiquidity, and high fees.
To address this need, Robinhood launched Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI), a closed-end fund that is accessible to all investors and trades daily. Robinhood plans to launch additional venture funds in the future to expand accessibility of different kinds of private investments.
Thematic, Growth, and Value Investing
Thematic investing opportunities are presenting themselves in an increasing number of scenarios, said Guild. One way to spot them is by looking at corporate capital expenditures.
“[It’s] not just in chips all the way… but in data center construction, power, energy, materials, networking, and cooling. And it's going into the physical world. That's very different than the last decade.”
“This is what we expect to happen even to the S&P 500 in terms of sector allocation. We believe that it will start to change because of where [cap ex] is going. So, you end up having the industrials sector higher, the energy sector higher, the materials sector higher.”
Guild also supported taking a more active approach to portfolio management and reminded advisors that not all stocks are created equal.
“If you're investing in the S&P right now, you're investing in the last decade,” she said. “Shifting your perspective on how to grow wealth has never been more important.”
Interested in more insights like these? Explore all of the SYNERGY26 announcements and see how TradePMR by Robinhood can help your firm take advantage of the changing market.
About TradePMR
For more than two decades, TradePMR by Robinhood has worked with growth-minded independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), providing innovative technology tools and support designed to transform their businesses. The brokerage and custodian services provider (Member FINRA/SIPC), based in Clearwater, Fla., works to streamline investment advisors' operations through comprehensive custodial, operational, and trading support. For more information, visit www.TradePMR.com.
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Robinhood Ventures is the investment adviser for RVI. Robinhood Ventures is the dba name for Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC (“RHV” or “Adviser”). RHV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc. Robinhood
