Key Takeaways
- The world was rocked by COVID-19 and it derailed many existing trends, but one that remains intact is the economic rise of the most numerous and educated generation in history.
- Demographics drive economic activity. As millennials enter their prime earning and spending years they will fuel generational consumption that has been at the core of previous bull markets.
- We also discuss the rise of millennial investors and some of the dislocations they’ve created in financial markets. We analyze why we think millennial investors have successfully identified thematic trends.
- We provide a list of five stocks that we believe are tied to the “iron trend” of millennials’ economic rise.
Competition is at the heart of markets. While markets have guardrails and regulations that distinguish them from the unrestrained competition of the jungle, so to speak, it can be useful to learn competitive lessons from nature to help inform the less consequential kind that occurs in markets. The stakes are money in markets as opposed to life and death in nature, but nonetheless, many of the principles and successful strategies used for survival can be quite useful in understanding what strategies will help you successfully preserve and accumulate wealth. Survival strategies in nature are highly tailored by life’s supreme ability to adapt over time.
Have you ever wondered why the prodigiously sized tiger appears bright orange? It doesn’t appear to be camouflaged with our primate perceptions. It seems counterintuitive that a beast that depends on stealth to support the massive calorie intake required for its survival would be one of the brightest and most distinguishable colors. To our perception, this makes no sense. However, to the primary prey of Tigers that are “color blind,” their adversary appears green. So, from the perspective of their intended prey, they are camouflaged. This type of different perception can be thought of as an analog for why sometimes younger generations are the best at spotting endurable trends.
When our Head of Research, Tom Lee, was getting his start in research he was a non-consensus voice on the future prospects of mobile telephones. Hindsight is of course 20/20, and we all now understand the significance of mobile phones and a huge portion of humanity carries one around daily. However, when the technology first emerged many on Wall Street thought that it was a niche product for the ultra-wealthy and any expansion would be curtailed by the powerful incumbent telecom industry.
When Tom has discussed this extraordinary call, he mentioned that he saw young people as voracious adopters of the technology who understood its potential. The old guard on Wall Street was “color blind” like a tiger’s prey, whereas Tom Lee and the young folks and pioneers he spent time with in the course of his analysis saw a bright orange tiger ready to make mincemeat of legacy telecoms.