If you’re got some spare cash to invest at the moment, it’s likely that you’re feeling positive about the range of investment vehicles on offer. With so many different sectors available, there’s never been a better time to get investing if choice and diversity are important to you as an entrepreneur. Whether you’re looking to invest in a digital-first business that operates through the internet or you’re more interested in traditional investment options such as property, there’s plenty to pick from. With that as a focus, here are some of 2018’s hottest investment sectors.
Property
The US property market has always operated in cycles, and that’s as true in 2018 as it’s ever been. Depending on where you look, the picture changes: the extraordinarily high prices in cities like New York mostly continue to persist and price all but the richest or least debt-averse investors out of the market, while the rate of return on properties in the rural Midwest continues to mean it’s unlikely to be worth your while looking there.
But what is looking likely is that some areas are about to really spike in price – and these are the places that buy-low, sell-high investors should be focusing on. Seattle, for example, is predicted to be on the rise. House prices here grew by 13.5% between July 2016 and July 2017, compared to a relatively measly 5.9% figure for the rest of the country.
Gaming
With thousands of customers signed up, the strong customer base of casino site Stakers is just one indicator that the fields of online gambling, gaming and leisure aren’t showing any signs of settling down. It’s believed that the wider US games industry is worth around $36 billion dollars, and that’s as a result of savvy investors realizing the potential of the industry to attract paying customers across the globe.
In general, online tech fields like these that disrupt real-life services and provide a better user experience along with a range of convenience benefits for the consumer are likely to still remain investment hotspots in the coming months and even years. That’s in part down to the fact that many people are still discovering the joys of fast and simple internet services. But it also has to do with advances in technology: online gaming, for example, is only going to become more and more popular as sophisticated tools like virtual reality headsets (one million of which were sold in just a single quarter last year) start to become gaming staples. For investors looking to ride the crest of the online wave, then, the gaming industry and the equipment niche manufacturing sector that now fuels it may well be the place to look.
The stock market
The stock market is another common investment choice from years gone by, and it’s one that’s still relatively popular in the modern age. Again, however, the stock market is one of the big beasts on which the internet is working its magic. Gone are the days when entrepreneurs, looking to find a company to invest in, would have to send off for a paper share certificate. Now, a whole host of websites that enable easy online share dealing have sprung up, meaning that investors are accessing the stock market in a completely different way.
And the rise in CFDs (contracts for difference) means that the stock market has been opened up to a much larger pool of potential investors. These instruments allow investors to experience all the same peaks and troughs as the stock market without having to possess the share itself. The popularity of these platforms means that the place to look if you’re an investor eyeing up the stock market may not actually be the stock or share itself, but instead the platforms that power this new type of trading.
Anyone who’s in the position to begin investing sometime soon can see that there’s a whole range of choice, and narrowing it down to an investment opportunity that’s both sensible and relevant is a tough task. But there are still plenty of options: from the stock market and all its many associated platforms to the worlds of online gaming and gambling, there are so many different options available. By thinking about where your interests lie and what sort of market you’re comfortable with getting involved in, you can whittle down the list and find an investment area that suits your priorities and hopefully helps you build a profitable portfolio.
