BBVA Global Markets Quantitative Investment Strategies & Index Solutions
News | 06 October 2025
Starting SMART: How BBVA Helps Clients Invest with Confidence
Every investor’s journey begins with the same question: How can I grow my wealth while protecting it from shocks? The BBVA SMART Index was designed to answer exactly that — offering a disciplined, transparent, and adaptive strategy that balances growth with safety.
For financial advisors, it provides a simple but powerful story to tell clients: diversify widely, adapt to change, and control risk.
For clients, it offers peace of mind — knowing their investments are managed with a systematic and transparent framework that aims to respond to markets rather than chasing them.
The SMART Index (Bloomberg: BBSMARTU) is a fully rule based investment strategy.” It is built on the BBVA QIS asset allocation framework, supported by six key pillars and a proven track record:
It follows clear rules to build a portfolio using equities, government bonds, and gold — three asset classes that complement each other across different market environments.
Diversification is further enhanced by spreading investments across the US, Europe, and Japan. These large developed economies, their business and monetary cycles don’t always move together, and by capturing these differences, helps the Index to smooth out performance over time.
The SMART Index applies risk parity — balancing the risk contribution of each asset. This avoids overexposure to equities and ensures every asset contributes to performance..
It also employs trend-following signals to detect momentum. If equities rise steadily, the Index increases exposure; if bonds or gold show strength, it shifts accordingly. This systematic process helps capture opportunities without relying on guesswork.
On top of that, the Index monitors market volatility via the VIX movements. When crises emerge and market turbulence become too extreme, it looks to reduce risky exposures and protects capital from large drawdowns. Finally, a volatility target of 5% ensures the portfolio’s ups and downs remain within a controlled range, known in advance by the investor. If volatility spikes, exposure is reduced; if it calms down, exposure increases again.
Think of it as multiple safety nets layered together — all designed to keep the portfolio resilient.
Since 2002, the SMART Index would have produced around 4.5% annual returns, with 16 positive years out of 20. Importantly, it avoided the kind of double-digit annual losses that can undermine client confidence and long-term plans.
For many investors, this is the difference between staying invested through difficult periods and abandoning a strategy at the worst possible time. Stability builds trust, and trust builds lasting relationships.
What sets this apart is not only the Index itself but the house behind it. BBVA has a long-standing reputation delivering investment solutions to our clients since 1875. The BBVA SMART Index is the output of a well established framework is more than just an index — As a framework, it showcases BBVA’s ability to design and implement tailored investment engines. Its modular structure means signals, overlays, or asset universes can be adjusted to meet the specific needs of institutional clients, insurers, or structured product issuers.
This ability to turn a robust framework into concrete customized solutions highlights the depth of BBVA’s Quantitative Investment Strategies expertise.
At the heart of it, investing is about confidence — confidence that your strategy will protect you in bad times and reward you in good times.
The BBVA SMART Index embodies that philosophy: systematic, diversified, and risk-aware.
For advisors, it provides a simple and compelling story to share with clients.
For clients, it offers a reliable path toward their financial goals.
For BBVA, it reflects who we are: committed to delivering responsible and transparent investment opportunities to everyone.
Because the smartest way to invest is to start with confidence.
By clicking here get additional insight about our flagship BBVA SMART Index
For financial advisors, it provides a simple but powerful story to tell clients: diversify widely, adapt to change, and control risk.
For clients, it offers peace of mind — knowing their investments are managed with a systematic and transparent framework that aims to respond to markets rather than chasing them.
Building on Strong Foundations
The SMART Index (Bloomberg: BBSMARTU) is a fully rule based investment strategy.” It is built on the BBVA QIS asset allocation framework, supported by six key pillars and a proven track record:
- Asset Diversification
- Geographic Diversification
- Robust Portfolio Construction
- Allocation Signals
- Market Shock Protection
- Volatility Control
It follows clear rules to build a portfolio using equities, government bonds, and gold — three asset classes that complement each other across different market environments.
- Equities drive growth
- Bonds protect in downturns
- Gold serves as a long term store of value and a hedge in times of inflation or crisis.
Diversification is further enhanced by spreading investments across the US, Europe, and Japan. These large developed economies, their business and monetary cycles don’t always move together, and by capturing these differences, helps the Index to smooth out performance over time.
Smarter Portfolio Construction
The SMART Index applies risk parity — balancing the risk contribution of each asset. This avoids overexposure to equities and ensures every asset contributes to performance..
It also employs trend-following signals to detect momentum. If equities rise steadily, the Index increases exposure; if bonds or gold show strength, it shifts accordingly. This systematic process helps capture opportunities without relying on guesswork.
On top of that, the Index monitors market volatility via the VIX movements. When crises emerge and market turbulence become too extreme, it looks to reduce risky exposures and protects capital from large drawdowns. Finally, a volatility target of 5% ensures the portfolio’s ups and downs remain within a controlled range, known in advance by the investor. If volatility spikes, exposure is reduced; if it calms down, exposure increases again.
Think of it as multiple safety nets layered together — all designed to keep the portfolio resilient.
A History of Stability
Since 2002, the SMART Index would have produced around 4.5% annual returns, with 16 positive years out of 20. Importantly, it avoided the kind of double-digit annual losses that can undermine client confidence and long-term plans.
For many investors, this is the difference between staying invested through difficult periods and abandoning a strategy at the worst possible time. Stability builds trust, and trust builds lasting relationships.
Why BBVA
What sets this apart is not only the Index itself but the house behind it. BBVA has a long-standing reputation delivering investment solutions to our clients since 1875. The BBVA SMART Index is the output of a well established framework is more than just an index — As a framework, it showcases BBVA’s ability to design and implement tailored investment engines. Its modular structure means signals, overlays, or asset universes can be adjusted to meet the specific needs of institutional clients, insurers, or structured product issuers.
This ability to turn a robust framework into concrete customized solutions highlights the depth of BBVA’s Quantitative Investment Strategies expertise.
Investing with Confidence
At the heart of it, investing is about confidence — confidence that your strategy will protect you in bad times and reward you in good times.
The BBVA SMART Index embodies that philosophy: systematic, diversified, and risk-aware.
For advisors, it provides a simple and compelling story to share with clients.
For clients, it offers a reliable path toward their financial goals.
For BBVA, it reflects who we are: committed to delivering responsible and transparent investment opportunities to everyone.
Because the smartest way to invest is to start with confidence.
By clicking here get additional insight about our flagship BBVA SMART Index