Investing is like managing a football team.

Your strikers chase growth opportunities. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the major forces shaping financial markets today, giving investors access to companies linked to a powerful potential long term growth theme. One way to invest in this theme is through an ETF, or exchange-traded fund, which lets investors buy a basket of investments in a single trade. But like any striker, an AI ETF is there to take shots — and that can mean more risk, with no guarantee it will score every time.

That’s why you also need midfielders, for example an ETF tracking a broad global share index, such as the MSCI All Country World Index (MSCI ACWI). It invests globally across thousands of companies and multiple sectors. This broader exposure is still aimed at growth, but it spreads your bets, acting a little like an attacking midfielder, supporting those strikers.¹ 

To diversify the team’s skillset, investors may also want a more defensively focused midfielder, such as an ETF that tracks the Global Aggregate Bond Index. Instead of stocks, it invests in a broad mix of high-quality government and corporate debt. Because bond prices can move when interest rates change, they may support the strikers in some matches, however, they also offer regular income through the interest payments they provide, and this can help cushion portfolio returns.

Your defenders add resilience. Gold, for example, can add another layer of protection when markets are under pressure. It doesn’t pay income and its price can still rise and fall, but because it may behave differently from stocks and bonds over the long term, it can help provide some counterbalance during uncertain periods.

This trend has been shining through in portfolios managed by professional investors. According to BlackRock, the proportion of moderate risk European portfolios that include an allocation to gold increased sharply from 16% in late 2025 to 37% by February 2026.²

Gold has also frequently ranked among the top three assets that European investors say they’re most likely to allocate to, according to recent BlackRock surveys.³

Your goalkeeper aims to bring stability. This could include money market funds, which typically lend short-term to governments, banks or companies. They’re usually lower risk than investments such as bonds, which tend to lend for longer periods, or stocks, which can move more sharply. But they’re still investments, not bank deposits, so their value and income can still rise and fall.

Diversification means building a stronger team for your money. The idea is to hold a variety of investments, so if one drops in value, the others can help offset the losses and stabilise your portfolio, with the aim of creating more consistent overall returns. Just as winning teams need defenders, midfielders and strikers working together, a resilient portfolio benefits from investments that play different roles and respond differently to changing market conditions.

One key thing to remember: leaving your money on the bench doesn’t mean it’s safe. Inflation can still chip away at the value of cash in a savings account, while a diversified portfolio gives your money more ways to defend, adapt and attack.