Oil and the dollar. Each is making some big moves over the last few weeks and months. Meanwhile, stocks just keep climbing. I’m going to add a small tranche, about 1/5 of a full position of common stock of Whole Foods, as it’s still not quite a full size position for me.
I spent most of my investment energy trying to find trends, industries and companies that are poised to revolutionize our societies and economies. Did the App Revolution change the world? Heck yea. Did the Social Networking Revolution change the world? Heck yea. Did that whole Internet Revolution change the world? Heck yea.
What are the three biggest growth industries about to revolutionize our world next? In order from smallest to biggest impact on our societies and economies they are:
1. Drones – Drones are going to get smaller, smarter and quieter. But drones are still just a baby industry barely getting started. No doubt we need and will get more laws and restrictions on how drones can be used in town, but they economics and features of drones are too strong to be denied. Drones are going to delivering your packages. Driverless cars and busses, which are also a form or drones (a drone is defined as an unmanned vehicle) are going to deliver you to your destinations. My favorite drone stocks include Ambarella and Amazon. Aerovironment is probably the purest play on the Drone Revolution, but they are not getting into the consumer drone business fast enough for my liking.
2. Robotics – Robots, like drones, are getting smarter and quieter. These aren’t your parents’ robots and we’re not talking about vacuum cleaners. Factories are filled with robots, but the average consumer doesn’t interact with robots much just yet. Robots, which, if they’re fully mobile, would also be known as drones, are going to sell us routine tickets, provide safety checks and who knows what else over the next decade. Put simply, it’s the ability to talk to your robot that might be the single biggest reasons that the consumer robot industry is finally about to take off. My favorite names in the robotics business include Intuitive Surgical and Honda Motors.
3. Wearables – Wearables is likely to be by far the biggest growth industry for the next five years. You’re going to see kids wearing HD camera recorders in their hats, sunglasses, clothes and accessories and streaming their lives up and down the Internet. You’re going to see people wearing displays and talking to themselves as they engage with their smart devices. Imagine your smartphone becoming a hub that controls your wearables and connects them to the Internet. Revolutionary on a global scale. By far the best two ways to play the wearables industry is to stick with Google and Apple. Amberalla’s name comes up here again, as they make the HD video chipsets that are quickly becoming the de facto standard. And Sony’s another one I own, partly because they are focusing heavily on developing new wearables and wearables technologies.
Invasion of privacy is going to be an ever bigger issue with wearables and drones and robots and their ability to track and keep data, video and other private information. Remember all the invasion of privacy issues around social networks and smartphones and browsers that track your data like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and so on? That’s not going to go away anytime soon, but it didn’t stop these companies from revolutionizing the world.