Healthcare is a sector I keep coming back to: aging demographics, near-inelastic demand and a pipeline of breakthroughs (oncology, weight-loss drugs, gene therapy) make it structurally interesting.
Two ways to play it
- Diversified ETFs (XLV, IBB) — boring, low-volatility, broad exposure.
- Single names with strong product franchises and clean balance sheets — Biogen, Neurocrine, Sarepta as historical references.
My approach
For most retail investors the ETF route wins on risk-adjusted return: drug-pipeline binary outcomes are very hard to handicap. I keep healthcare exposure modest (well under 10% of the book) and prefer it through the Nasdaq-100 indirectly rather than as a stand-alone sector bet.