Interesting Opportunities Roundup – Emerging Tech Trends

This week we’re rounding up interesting opportunities to consider.

Monday we talked about some crypto moonshots, Tuesday we talked about SPAC IPOs + EVs, and yesterday we talked about Tech Stocks. Today we’ll finish the week discussing what emerging trends to play attention to and that we may want to get in front of.

Now, if you want to take the easy shortcut to invest in promising new technology trends years before they are mainstream or are going to market, simply follow ARK Investing to see what they’re eyeing. You could take a step even further and just buy a bunch of ARKK and let them do the work for you.

That notable exception aside, I wouldn’t listen to the masses.

Here’s how you make money long-term:

1) Be a contrarian

2) Be right

That’s it.

You can’t be a contrarian and be wrong, because then you’ll lose money waiting for things to happen (bagholders unite). You also can’t follow the masses and be right because there will be no gains to be had. 

Instead, do your own research.

Sure, that’s a cliche piece of advice, but take it further once you do. Start to think about the future and how people and societies will interact with new technology. Let your research help guide your thesis, then quietly invest and wait. 

I feel this is the best way to multiply your returns. Don’t chase trends, try to envision what the future trends will be given how close we are to realizing the technology necessary to make the trend not only real, but profitable. Then, take a risk based off that. Sure, it’s always going to be a high-risk pursuit . . . but if you’re right, it’s a very high reward.

After all, you don’t get rich by investing at the top of the innovation adoption bell curve; that’s how you stay rich.

So, let’s talk about a few emerging tech trends, and dig into them.

In particular, just to name a few, here are some really interesting fields that will be surefire players in the years to come:

Biotech/Life Extension/Gene Therapy

Fintech

Semiconductor

Space Tourism/Commercial Space (way to early to invest)

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality

Artifical Intelligence

Robotics

Human Augmentations (2030’s for sure)

Clean Energy

Electric/Autonomous Vehicles

3D Printing

I’ll focus on a couple more:

First, Genomics. It’s already happening. As an example, before 2000, they rarely did genetic testing on tumors. Now it’s so common to send a biopsy for a gene panel to see if there are targeted therapies available.

One of the first and oldest is Gleevec which is specific to the BCR-ABL gene fusion caused by a common chromosomal rearrangement that you could see with a microscope.

Fast forward to 2020 and we are using sequencing technologies (read largely on the Illumina platform) to find base-pair resolution mutations in tumors for treatment.

Note that genomics isn’t just about addressing cancer. It’s currently being applied to family planning and general health, as well. The technology is a little stagnant at the moment (cost of sequencing hasn’t declined), but people are finding new applications every day.

Not to mention the promise CRISPR editing has, now that it has been approved for research and is being developed around the world. Expect small specific treatments in the coming decade. A CRISPR (or some other more precise genome editor) revolution is still many years in the future, but that makes it great for investors which such a vision.

Another trend to focus on is autonomous IoT powered by advances in wireless communication capabilities. 

Autonomous rideshare fleets get one step closer to becoming a reality. Given the size and reach of new communication towers, it is easy to see future cars being made with flexible solar paneling with their own miniature comm tower onboard.

This transforms vehicles from more than a means to transport something or someone from Point A to Point B; they become a node for the network powered by their own source of energy.

Sure, it’s hard to imagine a solar-powered car of the future becoming your new daily driver, but you’re not likely going to be the target demographic initially. 

Instead, industrial/factory automation, with the help of these advances, will become drastically more streamlined and efficient.

It is also a tailwind for enhanced cybersecurity. Terrorists crashing a fleet of autonomous vehicles on the L.A. freeway would be quite the scene.

Drone “servants” will boost commercial agriculture as well as household gardening. Imagine a drone that can survey your garden area, till the area, then direct another drone into shaping the soil into mounds and aisles while another drone deposits seeds and packs the dirt around them. This hive network of farming robots can be easily reconfigured and suddenly they’re a team sorting packages in Amazon’s warehouse. 

Looking for advances in technologies that enable advances in other technologies is the central thesis by which we look to the future . . . and how to invest in it.

Then, you start getting into the stuff that we don’t even know yet. We’re dealing with many new technologies, and it is conceivable that someone will discover new ways of using them that were either impossible before or simply never considered.

New problems, new solutions, new thinking.

Let those guide your vision, and you’ll be well on your way.

See you next week.