What Does The Future Hold For Investment?

– Contributed content –

2 June 2017. Investing is old, isn’t it? The concept of investing is age old. “I’ll give you this, in order for you to do that and bring us both a reward.” Investing will only grow more popular as well. That’s just a given. As time goes on, more and more people will invest. Why’s that then? Well – because it is getting easier than ever to invest. Thanks to the internet we can move our money around and find opportunities, we can also research and vet those same opportunities thanks to the internet. The investment opportunities available to us in the modern day?  They are large, wide and varied. There’s plenty to get your teeth into if you want to invest.

But what does the future hold? Not many would have been able to predict the impact would have had on the world of investing. In fact, many feared it – when the year 2000 hit, plenty of people thought that the stock market would have been brought to a halt due to date and year issues with computers – this didn’t happen. However, the internet has given us plenty to chew on regarding investing – it’s made it a lot more accessible than ever before. The future could certainly improve that – if we can invest from a phone, then surely more mobile possibilities are on the way? However, the future can only build on the past – so to understand the future of investing – maybe we need to look into the past for a moment?

(Wikimedia Commons)

We’ve already mentioned how old investment is – it’s an age old concept. Viking leaders invested in the return of coastal raids by allowing and funding the development of ships and supplies. However, for the first modern investment stories, we just need to look over to Amsterdam. Plenty of republics and trade empires jumped into life in the 16th century (and before) – the Hansa, Venice – there were plenty of riches to be found in Europe. With so much gold on offer for trading opportunities, it was only natural that a stock exchange was founded so this gold could be put to use. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is generally accepted to be the first of its kind. It worked like one too – it connected investors with opportunities and connected those opportunities to investors. Investing had likely existed in this world (how could it not?) before the ASE, but the ASE made it a lot simpler.

The ASE was put into place by the East India Company, who likely used it to fund expeditions and part of their trading empire. The ASE inspired a bunch of copies – and it itself was built on the ideas coming from Genoa and Venice centuries before the ASE. It was the Industrial Revolution that created the economy that we use today. The impact of technology allowed people to have more more money as a surplus and for the very first time, people could save. This helped banks grow and survive.

The Industrial Revolution introduced upper-class concepts like investing and banking to the rest of the population. The extra money that people had could be easily saved for the future. Some of the most famous banking firms on the Planet originated in this age – including Goldman Sachs! With the excess in money, incredible projects and expansions came about – cities were built and then connected. Wars were financed and anyone with cash could back projects via a bank.

Goldman Sachs Tower, Jersey City, New Jersey (Wikimedia Commons)

People then started to track stocks and prices – stock indexes came about in newspapers and then onto the radio and television. People wanted to know how their money was performing. With boom, came bust – as money was used, prices rose and caught people out – spending stopped, and the markets crashed, ruining lives. What happened? Well – people picked themselves up after the traumatic event and started again – and the markets grew once more. It all repeats.

Why the strong focus on history? Because it tells us everything that we are ever going to need to know about the future. When it comes to investing, there will be new developments, but they will mirror what has come before.

For example, new markets will rise – like the first true market came to exist in Amsterdam, we will find new markets. Bitcoin was a big one – and there will be more markets and opportunities that arise. It’s only natural and it will repeat! New banking firms will emerge – likely from developing countries offering new opportunities for investors from around the globe.

The path into investing? Just like the big banks came around, and you had to visit them to invest into something, there will always be new ways and methods of investing with their own benefits and drawbacks. We can invest with mobile phones and automated trading services like binaryrobot365 are becoming more popular and trustworthy to investors with one eye on the future. Who knows where it will go after automation? Speaking of automation, we are on the hinges of something that might shadow over even the Industrial Revolution. The popularity of automated mechanics and machinery are increasingly making workforces slimmer, and more efficient.

With people being put out of work by robots, economic theorists are calling for a universal basic income which would guarantee a flat rate of cash for every citizen. This would mirror the excess of cash shown at the start of the Industrial Revolution and herald a new age and boom of investing. But we know those booms come with busts – there will be a crash – either minor or major. But the world will always bounce back as it has done and will continue to do so.

The future will be an amazing place for investing as ideas and theories continue to circulate, but they can only do one thing – and that’s mirror the past. If we learn from our errors and build on our mistakes, we can make that future a better place for more than just investing. History has taught us a lot, and we could soon venture into a new age of investment and finance.

*     *     *