Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1.    Trump bans flavored vapes

a.    Source – USA Today

b.    A lot of young kids are addicted to vapes, this ban will cause them to make a major lifestyle change that has the potential to be capitalized on.

c.    The most likely customer of this opportunity are people between the ages of 14 and 23 who are addicted to vaping.

d.    The opportunity will be relatively easy to exploit because of the vast amount of young people it involves and how quickly the ban went into effect.

e.    I see this opportunity because Juul’s are a popular item at any college town or high school. I’ve seen it first hand when I go out in Gainesville. Almost everyone has a Juul or vape with them. I am also strongly against vaping, so finding a way to help get vapes out of kids hands is a great opportunity for me with this ban now in place.

2.    Trump plans to kill California’s clean-air authority

a.    Source – New York Times

b.    California’s air quality is poor in the urban areas, and the state losing the ability to regulate car emissions opens the door for a new eco-friendly transportation service to step up and help fight back

c.    The most likely customer of this opportunity are people in urban California, particularly Los Angeles, that want to find another mode of transportation to and from their destination that is not a car.

d.    This opportunity is difficult to exploit because while it will help save the air quality, it will most likely cause the customer to settle for a longer commute/ride in order to do so. 

e.    I see this opportunity because when I visited California a couple weeks ago, I was taken aback by how bad the air quality/smog truly was. Many of the locals I talked to about it said it was bothersome and needed to be fixed. Finding a solution to California’s air problem is a tough ask, but would be lucrative to the one who does it.

3.    Opportunities abound in value stocks following yield curve inversion

a.    Source – The Syndey Morning Herald

b.    As worry of a recession spreads, savvy investors can buy stocks with low price-to-earnings ratios to outperform buying stocks with high price-to-earnings ratios. Starting a business that gives this financial advice and shows which stocks to invest in during this time could prove beneficial

c.    Anyone who invests their money in stocks

d.    Relatively easy, because it is not hard to find stocks with a low price-to-earnings ratio and make a list with them ranked from best to worst. The hard part would be selling this information to anyone who invests.

e.    I see this opportunity because, as an investor myself, I’ve noticed people are panicked about the market. Many people believe another recession is on the horizon. If I can find a group of stocks that perform well through the market’s recent ups and downs, and then report my earnings to people as a sell point, I could potentially sell my own financial advice.

4.    Climate change to slow global economic growth, new study finds

a.    Source -CNBC

b.    Climate change could be the end of life as we know it, so getting people to do their part is critical in the coming years. 

c.    The most likely customer is everyone on the planet who owns a smartphone

d.    It would be relatively hard to get so many people to make major lifestyle changes to help save the planet, so starting smaller might be the best bet to get this idea of the ground.

e.    I see this opportunity because more and more people I know are starting to become motivated to help save the Earth. If I can create a way for people to get rewarded for doing little things each day that help save our planet, I believe there are enough people with emotional motivation to save the Earth out there to buy into it.