Saxo Investor Forecast Survey reveals investors trust global and US markets more than local ones

In the Investor Forecast, we asked Saxo clients how they believe three different stock markets - their local, the US, and the global - will perform, the further away from home you get, the more optimistic clients become. As such, 49% of the 1,834 respondents believe that the global equity market will see an "increase" or a "big increase," whereas the same number for their local markets is 35%.

Global confidence is also supported by clients' responses around which regions investors believe will perform the best and the worst. Here, North America and Asia-Pacific are rated as the most popular, with 32% and 27% picking those two, and with 37% choosing Europe (where most of the respondents reside) as the worst performing.

"Seeing how our clients view the world of investing is so interesting, and their belief in global markets relative to local ones is really something to take note of, especially from two points of view. On one hand, we also discuss the idea of home bias - investors' tendency to prefer their home markets - which this straight up contradicts. On the other hand, there's so much turmoil in the world, but at least according to our investors, there's still room for the global economy to outperform," says Jacob Falkencrone, Global Head of Investment Strategy.

The Investor Forecast features country differences, which paint an intriguing picture of what's on investors' minds in Saxo's different markets. For instance, Denmark is the most supportive of its local stock market, the French are the most open to diversifying their portfolio, while the Dutch are using AI the least as part of their investment process, and Japan is the most optimistic on the US's behalf.

You can read the full report here.

The purpose of the survey has been to capture current investor expectations and behaviours across Saxo's markets. The survey ran from 1-14 September 2025 and had a total of 1,834 respondents.