I’ve always been fascinated by the Pet Rock.  For the past four decades now, it’s become the epitome for an idea so cleverly simple, you wish you’d thought of it.  #-ad_banner-#The creator — Gary Ross Dahl — decided in the late 70’s that a rock would be the perfect pet for kids who would never have to feed or walk it. The fad only lasted about six months, but it made Dahl a millionaire.  The fact is there’s big money to be made from simple ideas. And while a lot of problems may be complex, I’ve noticed the best solutions… Read More

I’ve always been fascinated by the Pet Rock.  For the past four decades now, it’s become the epitome for an idea so cleverly simple, you wish you’d thought of it.  #-ad_banner-#The creator — Gary Ross Dahl — decided in the late 70’s that a rock would be the perfect pet for kids who would never have to feed or walk it. The fad only lasted about six months, but it made Dahl a millionaire.  The fact is there’s big money to be made from simple ideas. And while a lot of problems may be complex, I’ve noticed the best solutions are the ones you always end up wishing you’d thought of first.  Take California’s devastating drought situation… Consider these three facts:  1. California has more people than locally available hydrological resources can support.  2. The region is in the throes of a serious long-term drought.  3. The place sits next to the largest body of water on the planet. Now I don’t profess to be the sharpest hedge clipper in the potting shed. But even I can see the simply obvious solution to this massive problem… Find a way to talk the salt out of the damn seawater.  Well as… Read More

I learned something recently that scared the pants off me. It began with an extremely esoteric element of U.S. government rules. Specifically, Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 601, Subsections 40-46. The rules in this subsection give truly extraordinary power to a few individuals. You didn’t vote for a single one of them. But they’ve been entrusted with this power because of their expertise and experience. You’d think that something of this magnitude would have been on the news. If I were a network news director, I’d have run the story at the top of the telecast. Read More

I learned something recently that scared the pants off me. It began with an extremely esoteric element of U.S. government rules. Specifically, Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Section 601, Subsections 40-46. The rules in this subsection give truly extraordinary power to a few individuals. You didn’t vote for a single one of them. But they’ve been entrusted with this power because of their expertise and experience. You’d think that something of this magnitude would have been on the news. If I were a network news director, I’d have run the story at the top of the telecast. But get this: no major news outlet reported a word of it. One of two extraordinary things must’ve happened. Either the watchdogs at news organizations like The New York Times missed the story outright… … or they were ordered to stand down. Now, let me just warn you. I don’t do hysterics. I don’t overdramatize. The watchword of my premium newsletter, Game-Changing Stocks, is hyper-rationality.  I’m going to tell you what happened, though. And let me say right now that it has nothing to do with partisan politics. But I think you’ll still feel like your government sucker-punched you square… Read More

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father, statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He was also a brilliant inventor — creating bifocals, the lightning rod and the odometer. But his greatest invention has been shrouded in mystery for more than 250 years… It involves controlling one of the most important resources known to man: energy. #-ad_banner-#In 1749, through a revolutionary experiment, Franklin created a device that could capture and harness energy. Then, 150 years later, Thomas Edison picked up where Franklin left off. Since then, many others have carried forward this work.  But a few months ago, a band… Read More

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father, statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He was also a brilliant inventor — creating bifocals, the lightning rod and the odometer. But his greatest invention has been shrouded in mystery for more than 250 years… It involves controlling one of the most important resources known to man: energy. #-ad_banner-#In 1749, through a revolutionary experiment, Franklin created a device that could capture and harness energy. Then, 150 years later, Thomas Edison picked up where Franklin left off. Since then, many others have carried forward this work.  But a few months ago, a band of scientists — backed by an eccentric billionaire — took Franklin’s dream to new heights.  They finally broke through — and now it has the potential to make early investors a fortune.  From Franklin, Tesla, Edison — And Now Musk We’ve all heard the first part of the folk tale… Ben Franklin was convinced that lightning bolts contain energy, and he wanted to prove it. So during a thunderstorm, he flew a kite with a metal key attached, hoping the kite would get hit. And it worked. The kite was struck by lightning, and the key produced a shock. Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal? If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or are you an income investor who wants to watch their dividend “paychecks” (as my colleague Amy Calistri would say) roll in by the truckload? All of those strategies are great. There’s nothing wrong with them, and they’ll probably make you money in the long run. But I doubt they’ll make you… Read More

Do you want to become a millionaire? That’s obviously a rhetorical question… the majority of us would love it. But what’s your plan for achieving that goal? If your plan is to make that sort of wealth in the stock market, what’s your strategy? Blue-chip stocks, index funds, or are you an income investor who wants to watch their dividend “paychecks” (as my colleague Amy Calistri would say) roll in by the truckload? All of those strategies are great. There’s nothing wrong with them, and they’ll probably make you money in the long run. But I doubt they’ll make you a millionaire… at least in time for you to enjoy it. They’re not going to give you those “knocked out of the park” returns that you’ve heard about since you first learned of the stock market. No, I’m convinced that if your goal is to reach a seven-figure bank account, you need to follow something I like to call the “20% solution.” The idea behind it is simple. If your goal is to become a millionaire in the market, then you need to dedicate a portion of your portfolio to swing for the fences. Let me explain… My daughter is… Read More

The Wall Street Journal calls it “world-changing.” Both the Financial Times and CNBC say it’s a “game-changer.” And Business Insider calls it the “next trillion dollar industry.” #-ad_banner-#Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Longtime readers know I’ve written a lot about ground-breaking companies, trends and products that end up attracting this kind of copy from the financial press. But as I’ve said before, it’s often not the large, well-known company getting all the headlines that makes the outsized gains for investors. After all, when the mainstream press gets a hold of the kinds of ideas I regularly discuss in… Read More

The Wall Street Journal calls it “world-changing.” Both the Financial Times and CNBC say it’s a “game-changer.” And Business Insider calls it the “next trillion dollar industry.” #-ad_banner-#Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Longtime readers know I’ve written a lot about ground-breaking companies, trends and products that end up attracting this kind of copy from the financial press. But as I’ve said before, it’s often not the large, well-known company getting all the headlines that makes the outsized gains for investors. After all, when the mainstream press gets a hold of the kinds of ideas I regularly discuss in my newsletter, it’s often too late.  Instead, it’s the smaller, lesser-known companies behind the innovation that savvy investors should put their money into — and it’s important to get in on the early stages before things really kick off. That’s where the real money is made. For example, up until recently I’ve dedicated a lot of time to telling readers of my Game-Changing Stocks newsletter about the revolutionary advances being made by Apple with its payment technology — Apple Pay — and how investors can profit from the companies working behind the scenes to make it happen. This has led… Read More

With Halloween coming up this weekend, what better time to reflect on the stock market’s recent ups and downs? After all, the market headlines have been a little scary lately. If you don’t like big changes, you may feel a little spooked this fall. Check out this chart of the VIX Index, the commonly accepted measure of S&P 500 volatility. After a long period of relative tranquility, volatility jumped in August and took a while to calm down. There are many reasons for the volatility. Leading the list are signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, concerns about… Read More

With Halloween coming up this weekend, what better time to reflect on the stock market’s recent ups and downs? After all, the market headlines have been a little scary lately. If you don’t like big changes, you may feel a little spooked this fall. Check out this chart of the VIX Index, the commonly accepted measure of S&P 500 volatility. After a long period of relative tranquility, volatility jumped in August and took a while to calm down. There are many reasons for the volatility. Leading the list are signs of weakness in the U.S. economy, concerns about slowing growth rates for China’s economy, uncertainty about the Fed’s intentions regarding short-term interest rates and worse-than-expected earnings from some prominent companies. Despite these negatives, stocks have overcome their August-September swoon with an impressive rebound in October, as investors snatched up high-quality stocks. I’ve advised keeping cash out of the S&P 500 during periods of high volatility. In addition, the overall market’s valuation remains a little high relative to earnings, and all of the concerns listed above remain valid. Don’t Let Fear Blind You To The Real Opportunities In The Stock Market Now, I don’t want you to worry. Read More

Some time ago, I recommended a number of leading oil companies as mid-term investments to my premium Game-Changing Stocks readers. Usually, I stick to recommending little-known “game-changing” companies working on groundbreaking new products or technology that are set to change the way we live our lives. If you allocate, say, 20% of your portfolio to these kinds of stocks (with the other 80% in blue-chip stocks and index funds), and if you’re able to reap the triple-digit potential these stocks hold, then it can dramatically alter your portfolio’s yearly performance. I call this strategy my “80/20” solution. But lately I’ve… Read More

Some time ago, I recommended a number of leading oil companies as mid-term investments to my premium Game-Changing Stocks readers. Usually, I stick to recommending little-known “game-changing” companies working on groundbreaking new products or technology that are set to change the way we live our lives. If you allocate, say, 20% of your portfolio to these kinds of stocks (with the other 80% in blue-chip stocks and index funds), and if you’re able to reap the triple-digit potential these stocks hold, then it can dramatically alter your portfolio’s yearly performance. I call this strategy my “80/20” solution. But lately I’ve been warning my readers that the market is on dicey footing, so I’ve made it a point to offer up picks suitable for the other 80% of your portfolio. My reasoning behind my energy-related recommendations are simple: I don’t know when the price of oil is going to go up, but it will. Short-term conventional wisdom always yields to the statistical reality of the law of large numbers. Sooner or later, all outcomes regress to the mean. Right now, oil is hovering in the $50 range. But it wasn’t too long ago that crude was at $140, and my Spidey… Read More

Surgery is big business, and it’s going to get bigger for years to come.  There are about 51 million in-patient procedures — those serious enough to require hospital admission — done every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And while the economy is growing at a low-single-digit rate, revenue for makers of medical equipment, surgical supplies and related products and services is increasing 8% to 10% a year. As Chief Investment Strategist of Game-Changing Stocks, I can’t ignore a number like that. My job is to research new trends and innovations that I think are going to revolutionize… Read More

Surgery is big business, and it’s going to get bigger for years to come.  There are about 51 million in-patient procedures — those serious enough to require hospital admission — done every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And while the economy is growing at a low-single-digit rate, revenue for makers of medical equipment, surgical supplies and related products and services is increasing 8% to 10% a year. As Chief Investment Strategist of Game-Changing Stocks, I can’t ignore a number like that. My job is to research new trends and innovations that I think are going to revolutionize the world. And companies in the surgical equipment industry are doing just that. America is beginning to age. Those 65 and over account for just over 14% of the population today, and the group is expected to grow to 21.7% by 2040.  This is big news for the surgical industry because while some surgical procedures are common among younger people, the majority of them — like joint replacements and bypasses — tend to be more frequent among older Americans.  As these surgeries begin to become necessary more often, hospitals will have huge incentive to remain on the cutting edge for… Read More

Today we look at the idea of harnessing the sun’s power to generate electricity. It seems like a no-brainer, but some of the best minds in the world have burnt through billions of dollars trying to get the technology right — without a smashing success that heralds the arrival of the solar age. The watchword for this technology is still “someday.” So solar has its share of skeptics.  That’s healthy. Investors should be perpetual skeptics, questioning everything, all the time, taking everything with a grain of salt and never investing in anything they don’t completely understand. I’m always amazed at… Read More

Today we look at the idea of harnessing the sun’s power to generate electricity. It seems like a no-brainer, but some of the best minds in the world have burnt through billions of dollars trying to get the technology right — without a smashing success that heralds the arrival of the solar age. The watchword for this technology is still “someday.” So solar has its share of skeptics.  That’s healthy. Investors should be perpetual skeptics, questioning everything, all the time, taking everything with a grain of salt and never investing in anything they don’t completely understand. I’m always amazed at people who tell me they’ve bought stock in Company X or Y and then admit to knowing nothing about what the company does. Solar skepticism is also logical, at least to a point. I will be the first to concede that by any number of measures, solar has failed to take off as a meaningful source of the world’s power portfolio. Its economics have sometimes proven difficult at best.  But today, solar power represents the fastest-growing portion of the energy industry, in the United States and around the world. So I’m wondering, is this a good time to make solar… Read More

The past couple of weeks have sent investors into a frenzy.  I know most aren’t surprised by this market hiccup, but volatility like what we’ve seen recently can still be tough to stomach. It’s times like these that it becomes important to get back to the basics. In fact, I’d venture to say that anyone can follow just four simple steps to invest successfully. They’re not difficult concepts, and they’re most important when the market is in flux. 1. Have a system.  There are too many securities in the world to approach… Read More

The past couple of weeks have sent investors into a frenzy.  I know most aren’t surprised by this market hiccup, but volatility like what we’ve seen recently can still be tough to stomach. It’s times like these that it becomes important to get back to the basics. In fact, I’d venture to say that anyone can follow just four simple steps to invest successfully. They’re not difficult concepts, and they’re most important when the market is in flux. 1. Have a system.  There are too many securities in the world to approach the market without some framework for making rational choices. For instance, my newsletter, Game-Changing Stocks, has a simple system — put 80% of the portfolio into predictable stocks or index-tracking vehicles and allocate the remaining 20% to aggressive growth securities with greater potential returns than the overall market offers. This system is backstopped by millions of data points that offer a reliable statistical underpinning for predictable results over the long term.  Over the long term, corrections are going to happen. That’s reality. But we go in knowing that, and we do not panic when the arrows on Wall Street start… Read More