Thursday, May 26, 2016

Looking for Opportunity


Opportunities Resulting from Economic Trends

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1       1.) Dramatic swings recently in the price of oil:
o   This leads me to believe that an opportunity to exist because it illustrates that the price of crude oil is subject to change drastically in relatively short amounts of time.  Whenever you can a product whose market value is susceptible to rapid change, you have an opportunity to reap high rewards in short amounts of time by trading in that product.  You should keep in mind that this also carries higher amounts of risk, however.
o   According to this article, moms and millennials are currently hopping on the train of this opportunity.  However, the prototypical person that will benefit from the rise and fall of oil will be those who keep themselves updated with market conditions and have the resources to invest and risk their money.  This will most likely be people who are employed and have low amounts of debt.
o   This opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, because you can now invest and trade exchange traded funds from apps on your phone such as Robinhood, and many of these apps have low minimum balances and do not even charge fees or commissions.  This opens up the field to people with much lower net worth’s than what was previously imagined to be necessary to participate in investing.
o   I saw this opportunity because I enjoy reading and learning about the market.  I enjoy this for its own sake because I think finance is interesting, and also to look for investment opportunities I could exploit myself. 
·           2.) There is an unmet demand for entry-level housing:
o   This article leads me to believe that an opportunity exists because we learned that an opportunity “constitutes the formation of a belief that a group of customers have an unmet need.”  There is a growing demand for entry-level housing, yet builders are focusing on the safer bet of developing higher end real estate for people with larger credit.  This has left a lot of people who are willing to pay money for a home without any options.
o   The customer for this opportunity would largely consist of young, first-time homebuyers with less income and credit than older or more affluent people.
o   It is a relatively easy opportunity to exploit if you have the resources to develop houses. That is, it is not uncharted territory, and there are many organizations that have the capability to do it.  It is a difficult opportunity to exploit if you do not have the resources and money to develop real estate.
o   I saw the opportunity because I like to stay updated on the housing market because I plan on either entering the real estate industry myself or at least buy real estate at some point in my life as an investment.

Opportunities Resulting from Regulatory Changes

·         3.) Uncertainty over interest rates has put the dollar in a vulnerable position, with the                       possibility of a rapid rise or fall in the near future:
o   There is opportunity here because the dollar is in a fragile place, highly sensitive to regulatory forces on the interest rate.  If the Federal Reserve raises the interest rate or if investors think they will raise it, then the dollar rises as it “becomes more attractive to yield-seeking investors.  The dollar has been falling recently because of some mixed economic data.  There is opportunity here because if an expert in the field of foreign exchange or someone willing to do thorough research put their mind to it, there could be a lot of money to be made in trading of the dollar.
o   Investors with experience and comfort in foreign currency exchange are the most likely customers of this opportunity.  Also likely customers are people from foreign countries who have easy access and comfort in trading for their home currencies.
o   This opportunity is easy to exploit because it is not difficult to trade in foreign currencies, but it could be risky because it could be difficult to ascertain what will happen next with interest rates.
o   I saw this opportunity and would take advantage of it because I enjoy taking a good risk, and doing everything I can to beat that risk, in order to achieve high rewards.  Someone who is more risk-averse may not see this as an opportunity or may see it to be too risky to be a viable opportunity.
·         4.) The regulatory body FDA has approved a new arm implant called Probuphine to treat                opioid dependence:
o   This is an opportunity to heal many people in America and is a step towards reversing the growing opioid endemic in our country.  It is an opportunity to help our friends and loved ones and the families we know that have suffered as a result of the opiate addiction of a loved one. 
o   This opportunity is one that will indirectly benefit everyone because many people are hurt by opiate addiction even if they are not addicts themselves.  The primary prototypical customer will be those people who have opiate addictions such as prescription drugs and heroine and can use this implant to lessen withdrawal symptoms and ease cravings for opioids.
o   The opportunity is limited in easiness by its cost, which is expected to be less than $6,000 dollars for six months.  This is either a cost that someone could or could not afford.  For some people it will be an easy choice, for others it will be something that will be difficult to attain.  It is a small price to pay, however, when you think about it in terms of someone getting their life back.
o   I saw this opportunity because I see myself as sympathetic to anyone going through such a tough time in their lives and sympathetic to their families and friends who are affected by it, even though I have never witnessed an opiate addiction.  I believe everyone deserves hope for a better life, and this is an opportunity which will give many people that hope.



4 comments:

  1. I think you did a great job with all of your opportunities. I think that the entry level housing article is interesting and it makes sense that their is not as much support for cheaper housing because people want to make money and the money is in the more expensive housing. Cheaper housing may be overlooked though creating an opportunity. The oil prices always seem to be all over the place. Maybe there is a good way of predicting the trend. I agree with what you said about larger risk. Sounds like you have a good idea of how to invest. Buy low sell high, am I right? haha. The article about the dollar is interesting because there are so many factors involved in whether it will gain strength or go to crap. It's hard tell exactly what direction it will go in until it's too late is my guess. I really enjoyed the arm implant article also. It goes to show that there are better cures for addiction than a rehab center. Maybe we have to combat drug addiction with other drugs. Thanks for the interesting post.

    I think you might enjoy my post. Here's a link to mine if you are interested in checking it out - http://entclassblog.blogspot.com/2016/05/looking-for-opportunity.html

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  2. I think you did a great job! I also found articles about oil and the topic of the dollar. I think you did a great job of bulleting all of your points and keeping them nice and concise. I, though, am not as big of a risk taker as you sound, and would probably not exploit the advantage in the foreign market because of the great uncertainty of what would happen to my money!

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  3. In my blog i also talked about the recent decrease there has been in the price of oil. I also agree this is presenting several opportunities within the oil industry. This issue with inflation on money has been an issue over the past couple of years and will continue change. It will also be interesting to how the housing situation will be handled.

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  4. I really enjoyed your articles and the economic ones were really eye opening. I had a similar article about the price of oil, but our opportunities were completely different, and I found that so different, we were given almost identical information but had two totally different opportunities, I guess it just has to do with our background and what we were looking for. Great job overall, really informative and I like how it was set up, really easy to read.

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