Investments are the main force moving our economy forward. Without investment, real economic growth is not possible, and theoretically, we would be stuck where we are forever.
Investments could be of various types. But fundamentally, you can invest in physical assets, such as houses, plots, precious metals, and so on. Or you can invest in financial assets, such as stocks, bonds, funds, and many more of this kind.
An intelligent investor will have to be informed about all aspects of the investment environment. Especially if you are investing in financial assets, you will have to be very careful about returns and risks.
More recently, investments are not performing as investors would want them to be. After the 2007-08 financial crisis, the main financial investment sectors could not rise up to the expected level.
And now the world is facing a pandemic. The level of economic lockdown imposed around the world is unprecedented. Global trade levels have fallen to a record level due to lockdown measures. Various economies around the world are going into recession, and financial assets are dwindling in value.
In this article, we are going to investigate some potential companies with investment possibilities for you and try to rank them from good to ugly.
The Good
If you want to think of a tech company performing well, you have to think about Apple. Apple’s success has been driven by its innovations and its future-proofing of the company.
Apple has been a superhub for innovation for decades now. Since Steve Jobs took over, their main motto is to go forward, and these strategies have been paying off.
They first shook the world with Macintosh computers. At that time, such a computer was unbelievable. Then they changed the world with the invention of the iPhone. The revolution brought can be compared to the invention of the internet.
But, that wasn’t the end for Apple. Unlike many single-trick companies, Apple has learned to adapt. Year after year, it has brought the most futuristic innovation forward. Apple was the first to introduce mobile phones without headphone jacks, and everyone thought that was a suicidal idea. Now, every other company is following Apple’s suit to remove headphone jacks from their phone.
It’s just one of the examples of how Apple has led the revolution in technology. You have to take the risk to gain the profit, Apple knows this, and so do their investors. Likewise, our decision to invest in Apple stocks would have to be a bold step like the company itself.
The next good investment opportunity would be Netflix. It is a streaming service that allows you to stream movies and TV shows in exchange for a certain subscription fee.
The company first started by borrowing TV shows and movies from other producers and TV channels. Their business model was first online ordering and then home delivery of the products in physical devices, such as CDs and VCR.
The company later started to produce their own content. But the most exciting thing about their business was how they changed their whole business model. They took the risk to go online completely and start a streaming service like YouTube, only with TV shows and movies. They successfully predicted what the future demands and adapted accordingly, which paid off big time. Netflix started to earn unbelievable profits while depending on the content not even created by them.
This type of future-proofing gives investors the assurance that it will not go bankrupt anytime soon and the confidence to invest. You can visit https://stocksreviewed.com to receive more insight into good investment opportunities.
The Bad
It might surprise you to see Google in the ‘bad’ category anywhere. But it is time the investors woke up from the search engine dream and had an actual insight.
Everything about Google is shiny. Their search engine and search algorithms are trivial for internet surfing and online marketing. With other competitors virtually non-existent, Google rules the world of Search engines.
But could Google stand increasing competition without diversification or adaptability? Google’s hardware ventures are all mostly failures. Remember Google lens? You should not blame yourself if you don’t. Their mobile line, Pixel, couldn’t offer much more than what the other competitors are already offering.
They lost out on the social media opportunity, with a botched up job, creating Google+, which was such a great failure that they had to shut it down. Even though they were the minds behind Android, but couldn’t keep hold of it as Apple did with iOS.
Still, investment opportunities were surprisingly good in the case of Google because they took some good steps by introducing and acquiring timely technologies, such as Google Drive, YouTube, etc. But the future might be bleak for Google.
The Ugly
Microsoft is our company for the ugly section. We shouldn’t have a hard time selling you in on this. Even people with the least knowledge about the investment market know what’s going on at Microsoft.
The company really struggled to diversify after coming up with an easily accessible operating system for computer users in the 90’s.
Its first rough awakening was the smartphones. When people realized how convenient an Apple or Android phone is and how much work you can get done in them, they started to get up from their computers. Microsoft didn’t realize this until it was too late. Then it tried to partner with another sinking ship Nokia to bring out its smartphone line, Lumia, which failed miserably.
Microsoft’s existing software, too, is aging. Lack of inside the platform diversification has really hurt this company. It has tended to always serve its long-standing and aging customer base, instead of tending to the modern generation.
Microsoft simply has been able to stay afloat because it has some unparalleled products. The operating system market is virtually free of competition for Microsoft as iOS will not disintegrate, and very few people use open systems like Ubuntu. An office suite is practically an irreplaceable tool for documentation activities.
These aspects have kept this company floating. But without diversification, the company will go under very soon, and a wise investor should see this coming.
Investment decisions are very personal and unpredictable. You might see something in a company others fail to see. It is up to you if you want to bet your money on that. So, after gathering all the information available, it’s your instinct that you have to follow before making an investment decision.
