I’m excited about a couple of sectors right now…I think that a couple of them are going to change our world before we even notice that our world has changed. I’m not sure which of these will hit – if any – but I’m putting the little bit of speculative investment money I have on these bets.
1) Industrial Automation. These two words sound simple but they represent some of the most complex changes in the history of human civilization. The industrial revolution changed the face of the globe. This was a massive shift in human civilization as humans went from hand produced items in the late 1700s to items produced by chemical, mechanical, machine, and factory production about sixty years later in the 1830s and 1840s. Everything changed and it changed because the way we make things changed. And then the second industrial revolution took place from the 1870s to the 1910s bringing railroads, electrification, telegraphs, sewage systems, and road systems. The Third Industrial Revolution was the digital wave. Now, I believe we are on the cusp of a Fourth Industrial Revolution – which can be summed up with the two words I started with – Industrial Automation. Artificial Intelligence combined with advanced robotics and machine learning are eliminating human beings from the production process. Not only the production of goods, but also the production of food, the driving of trucks and cars, legal work, medicine, and more. All the industry that has been created in the past 250 years is on the edge of running itself. In ten years, we won’t recognize most of the jobs that the labor force will choose from because most of the old jobs will be gone. Three companies that I have my eyes on are Brookstone Automation $BRKS Hollysys Automation $HOLI and ABB Ltd $ABB.
2) Gene Editing. There are already parents paying to have genetic disorders corrected in unborn children or even picking the sex of their future child – that’s old news. The near future of gene editing is much more sci-fi and it’s coming very quickly. Gene editing and splicing allows for the repair or replacement of faulty genes – and on a purely crazy note – might even allow for defeating the debilitating effects of aging. I’m not saying people will be able to live forever – but they may soon be able to live their lifespan without their bodies falling apart on them. Not to mention genetic disorders will be able to be fixed in living patients. They might even be able to turn a switch that would turn off the hair that grows on my back and turn on the switch for hair on the top of my head. There are a lot of companies working in these areas but I’m watching CRISPR Therapeutics AG $CRSP, Editas Medicine $EDIT, Intellia Therapeutics $NTLA and Sangamo Therapeutics $SGMO
3) Electric Cars. The world is going to go electric. Elon Musk saw it and unfortunately, he may have fucked himself and Tesla Motors for a while – but I still believe his company will pull through – still, I’m not putting my money there. Instead, I’m looking at Volkswagon$VWAGY, GM $GM, and Chinese upstart NIO $NIO. While the electric cars themselves are going to be taking the world by storm – the components and materials they require are also worth looking at – lithium and cobalt for batteries, new poly and nanofiber materials for bodies and tires. These are not going to be your grandfather’s Oldsmobile…and going back to industrial automation – they aren’t going to be produced on human assembly lines. Also, they will have self driving technology – Tesla already has it, VW isn’t far behind and GM is spending huge amounts to get there. Google and UBER are already running their cars – and it won’t be long before Amazon jumps in the game. Amazon is definitely going to make a car – they’ve just announced an auto enabled Alexa – the cars are next.
4) Cryptocurrency is coming back. If you haven’t already BUY BITCOIN – you won’t regret it. You may have to wait a couple of years – but it will become the defacto reserve currency if not the official reserve. Tokenization of major industries may or may not happen but block chain finance is happening and there is no going back. Overstock $OSTK and Square $SQ are the two main crypto plays I see in the stock market. IBM $IBM is the number one blockchain play that I see – not to mention a company that is rapidly developing artificial intelligence solutions, cloud computing and storage, and quantum computing.
5) Marijuana stocks (speaking of Elon Musk…)These are pure speculation at this point. There are some interesting prospects but the wild bubbles are too hard to pin down. Personally, I like Cronos Group ($CRON) and Neptune Wellness ($NEPT) but this is anyone’s guess…I’ve stayed away from Tilray and bought a little bit of Canopy Growth but these are like putting money on zero and double zero on a roulette wheel….nice payout if they hit. No payout for Elon’s hit though….
So there you have it…that’s the future I see. If a friend asked me which three companies to invest in out of the whole market my advice would be Amazon, IBM, and AliBaba – Everything else is a gamble but I feel like those three are the literal future of everything – but for you, dear reader, I suggest that you recognize that past results do not guarantee future returns and that this is not financial advice but only an opportunity for me to suggest where you might find some value if you do your own research.
Good luck. Always bet on black.