One of the new buzz words pertaining to the web and the companies that focus here is the “internet of things.” As fancy and abstract as this sounds, it’s actually quite a simple concept. Devices, normally wearable devices, help track our activity, and then give us feedback over the web on how we did that activity. This was the primary purpose of Fitbit, and the Apple Watch made great headway here, too, even if it did have less than impressive commercial results.
Besides being a cool concept, the internet of things holds great potential, and some companies are showing far greater success than Apple has seen so far. Qualcomm, for example, is poised to do really well thanks to their leadership position in the microchip and processor field. They have already seen great success this calendar, having their stock jump up by about $10 from the lowest point to now.
Not many options brokers carry Qualcomm, but almost all of them carry the companies that Qualcomm provides microchips for. They have done work with Apple and Google, two of the largest companies in the world. Looking at Qualcomm gives us a tiny glance at what direction many of these larger companies that options brokers do focus on. It’s far from an exact science, but it is a good way to get a feel for what is going on in this quickly growing field, and how the big companies are positioning themselves to create attractive products and boost their profitability. What it comes down to is that the huge companies that we all know—the Apples, the Googles, the Amazons—they all rely on the technology that Qualcomm provides to give you a better product. As these companies find innovative ways to expand profits, Qualcomm is one of the main beneficiaries.
This is a very specific example of how businesses interact and feed off of one another, with the end result being that mutual growth occurs, driving up prices for each company involved. The relationship between these companies is outlined here, but it’s a concept that can be applied to other areas of the market, and even beyond the stock market, if you so desire. Thinking about and capitalizing off of these kinds of relationships can give your trading a new life, and drive up your own profitability over the course of time. If you haven’t thought about this before, spend some time looking at the assets that you typically trade, and how they might relate to other assets out there.
The internet of things is a very small portion of a very large sector. Technology stocks are some of the hottest out there, and they have seen remarkable growth over the years. Watching individual stocks can be tricky, though. We’ve seen monsters like Apple have issues, moving sideways, or even in seeming bear markets for months or more at a time. Apple is one of the most well loved and respected companies in the world, and if they can have problems with stock growth, then any company can. However, even if Apple (for example) is struggling, other companies are not. That’s why we like looking at the NASDAQ index to help us get a handle on what tech stocks are doing. This makes long term options trading much easier. If you are looking for long term trade opportunities, but are not comfortable with the volatility that many individual companies have, then looking for a more stable trade with the NASDAQ, or any other index, really, can be a good way to add an extra element of profitability to your trading.
