One year ago – almost to the day – I was interviewed on CNN Business and made a bold prediction. I said the S&P 500 would be up 25% in 2019.
It was especially bold coming out of the tough correction from October into December that dropped stocks nearly 20% from their highs. The CNN reporter interviewing me, Richard Quest, was skeptical. In fact, he bet me dinner on it.
Free dinners taste the best. The S&P 500 did gain 25%. It actually performed even better than that.
So guess what I did last week?
No, I didn't get my dinner. I'm still waiting for that. But I was interviewed once again on CNN Business... and I said the same thing as last year – that the S&P 500 will be up as much as 25% at some point this year.
I plan to collect on last year's wager, and we upped the ante for this year's bet to a steak dinner and a bottle of expensive wine. I plan to collect this time, too – because I'm that confident in my prediction for 2020.
Let me tell you why... and where to find the best opportunities of this bull market.
I'm bullish for a lot of reasons. Interest rates are low... Inflation is low... Corporate earnings are growing... And stocks are not overvalued based on forward price-to-earnings projections.
But the main reason I see such big upside potential is that so many different technological breakthroughs are coming together at the same time...
- The rollout of 5G wireless networking will begin this year and unleash a series of new mega-trends that will hit the mainstream.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) will continue to expand. Estimates say that by 2025, a trillion devices will be connected to the Internet.
- Artificial intelligence ("AI") will move from behind the scenes to where we cannot live without it.
- New medical breakthroughs will be powered by AI and genetic data, along with new biotechnology research. In fact, the first drug developed entirely by AI has just now started clinical trials.
- Transportation will be transformed in ways not seen in decades, if ever. In fact, at the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, my team and I were able to sit in the flying cars of the future!
I told Richard Quest how these technological innovations will create trillions of dollars in economic value over the coming years.
I also told him how much this year resembles 1990. Stocks were enjoying an eight-year bull market when the 1990s began, and a lot of folks said it was about to end. They couldn't have been more wrong. That decade ended up being the best 10 years in stock market history.
I get angry when I think about all the profits people missed out on because they were afraid to buy after the strong run.
And that's my message to you today, tomorrow, next week, and next year. As we enter 2020, you must be in stocks if you want to grow your wealth.
There will be dips and even full-blown corrections along the way, but the long-term trend is relentlessly higher. There is no better way to grow your wealth, achieve your financial goals, and live the life you want than to invest in stocks.
So, how do you take advantage of it?
The best way to make big money in the coming years is to invest in smaller companies... especially the best microcap stocks in the market.
Because small companies have such great potential to grow wealth, I believe everyone should have a portion of their portfolio in small stocks before they grow large.
The best-performing stock of the 1990s was a small, little-known computer company at the beginning of the decade... but it grew larger over the next 10 years. By the end of 1999, Dell Computer was worth nearly $100 billion, and the stock gained 91,863% during the 1990s. That turns an investment of $5,000 into $4.5 million.
I can also tell you that microcap stocks are where I've found the best trades of my career. After accompanying a friend into an Ulta Beauty (ULTA) store when that company was only valued at $1 billion, I researched the business and loved what I saw. My Ulta recommendation soared 2,043%.
Last week, I joined my friend Steve Sjuggerud to talk about the markets, and I shared one of my latest recommendations on air. It's a company that uses AI to develop new drugs. The future of drug discovery will rely on AI technology... And this company is at the forefront.
It currently has a robust pipeline of drugs, two of which are in Phase III clinical trials with potential approval this year. In fact, the company's market cap expected to rise well into the billions in the next few years – a monumental milestone, considering that it currently sits at $700 million.
Because this company is small, it will only take one or two approvals for the stock to become a 10-bagger and the next household biotech name.
That's the kind of scenario that moves stocks. And small tech companies with big growth potential are the kinds of stocks you want to own right now.
Regards,
Matt McCall
Editor's note: During our Melt Up event last week, Matt sat down with Steve and gave away the name and ticker of his AI recommendation... which he believes could ultimately return 10 times your money. But if you missed it, you can still watch a replay to learn the name of this stock – along with Steve's latest bull market prediction. Watch the video here before it goes offline.
Further Reading
"The early days of any technological revolution are full of change," Matt writes. History shows that the next generation of technology juggernauts will change the world – with big profits along the way... Read more here: Why 5G Will Unleash the Market's Next Trillion-Dollar Winners.
The technology sector was the poster child of the dot-com Melt Up. And we're seeing a similar trend this time around. But surprisingly, the biggest winners of the last great bull market weren't typical tech stocks... Get the full story here.
Innovative tech companies can lead to big gains for investors. And this medical firm's latest technology is changing its industry for the better...
BIG GAINS ARE ROLLING IN FROM THE SMARTPHONE-PAYMENT WAVE
Today's company is riding the wave of the cashless revolution...
Regular readers know that more and more folks are using alternative methods to pay for everyday items, like paying online or with their smartphones. In fact, we believe that no one will carry a wallet in the near future. And today's company is helping to make that prediction become a reality...
PayPal (PYPL) is a $145 billion giant in electronic payments. It has 305 million active account holders that can make payments either online, on their phones, through its app, or even face-to-face. And it owns popular app Venmo and money-transfer service Xoom. As more and more folks leave their wallets at home, PayPal's revenue is increasing – and it's rewarding shareholders, too. Last year, PayPal returned $1.4 billion to shareholders through buybacks... while revenue grew 15% to $17.8 billion.
As you can see, PYPL shares are in a long-term uptrend. They're up roughly 250% since PayPal spun off from online-bidding company eBay (EBAY) in mid-2015. And as folks switch to making online and mobile payments, this trend should continue...
