Investing in unstoppable trends

Early in my career as an equity analyst covering newspapers and the Internet, I learned a valuable lesson.

I got an up-close view of how newspapers — a once dominant media business — lost their edge to online advertising platforms like Craigslist and Zillow. A good chunk of the industry overlooked the looming disruption. I quickly learned the importance of identifying unstoppable trends that could transform industries and investing in those companies best positioned to benefit.

I define an unstoppable trend as one in which a new product or service offers so many advantages over the incumbent that it can be expected to take market share from the incumbent year after year for as long as they both exist. For example, while paper money, coin money, and checks still have their uses, digital money is so much more convenient that it seems set to continue to take share of all payments for decades to come.

You can now read the full whitepaper at the link below