The global pandemic uprooted our lives. Office buildings closed. Schools and stores locked their doors. Many restaurants are open only for takeout. Travel - for the most part - is restricted. Everything moved online. And this is where we started seeing tech cross that chasm quickly. Online retailers are more than just surviving... They're crushing it and thriving! Shares of companies such as Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Chewy (NYSE: CHWY), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Etsy (Nasdaq: ETSY) were all up more than 60% from the beginning of the year to the end of July! As a whole, the sector is outperforming the broader markets. The Amplify Online Retail ETF (Nasdaq: IBUY) is up about 51% in 2020, more than double the gain of the broader Nasdaq. But that's not all... In our new normal, Zoom Video Communications (Nasdaq: ZM) meetings, happy hours, hangouts and baby showers are an everyday occurrence. I'm actually in the process of trying to plan and organize a Zoom bachelor party. The use of telemedicine is also skyrocketing. And with workers now largely telecommuting, business communication platforms like Slack Technologies (NYSE: WORK) are a necessity. Meanwhile, deals still need to be made, so e-signatures and agreement cloud suites from companies like DocuSign (Nasdaq: DOCU) are imperative. From the beginning of 2020 to the end of July, shares of Slack were up 40%, while shares of DocuSign, Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) and Zoom were up more than 150%. And shares of the streaming king Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) were up roughly 60%... The stay-at-home economy stocks are delivering real returns. COVID-19 has helped some of these technologies leap over that chasm from early market to mainstream in a very quick period of time. For instance, Zoom's monthly active users have swelled from 10 million to more than 200 million, demonstrating how videoconferencing has become a big part of our lives. Slack now has 120,000 customers, up nearly 30% from last year's total. Looking at Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation theory, you can see why we pointed investors to these companies months ago. Yes, the quarantine and stay-at-home measures will eventually end. (Though I believe the shift will probably not be significant until a successful vaccine is developed... which has been another hot area this year.) But COVID-19 has let the genie out of the bottle for tech. The pandemic is accelerating the adoption of technology that was already underway - in some cases moving it up by five years or more. There's no going back. They've crossed the chasm into mainstream. And as both tech and trend investors, we've been enjoying capitalizing on these opportunities. Good investing, Matthew P.S. Tech is king, and 5G is leading the charge. Thanks to partnerships with major tech companies like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, one 5G stock has more momentum than ever. Click here for details on the linchpin device that could make you 24 times your money. |
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