We’d all want to know when the next Uber or Microsoft came along as an investor, but the reality is that finding a sure fire way of making big returns on your investments just does not exist.
The best way of seeking out an opportunity, whether big or small, is to look for patterns in the latest ‘crazes,’ which have existed since the dawn of capitalism. Whether you are a small scale investor or managing a hedge fund, the next big idea can make you and/or your clients a lot of money.
So what is the up and coming crazes to look out for? Here are four ideas for investors that might just blow up and turn you a handsome profit.
Flavoured Beers
The $23.5billion craft beer market has taken around five years to get to that stage. You’ve likely heard of “limited run” beers, with weird and wonderful names. Unfortunately, from an investment point of view, the craft beer market is sewn up.
Sticking with the beer theme, there is now a new craze of flavoured varieties. The most common are the types with fruit infusions, such as strawberry, raspberry or even mango. Maybe not that appealing to some, but certainly gaining momentum with a consumer base with more disposable income than most (18-25 year olds). So-called ‘micro breweries’, opened by ambitious entrepreneurs begging for investment, could be crying out for injections of capital to get off the ground and market their faddy beverages.
Tobacco/Vapour Products
Smoking is making a comeback. After years of becoming slightly less fashionable, from an investment standpoint it is being billed as being one of the most attractive sectors for growth. Ornate pipes, flavoured rolling papers and tobaccos, and the modern favourite of vaporisers. The options are seemingly endless.
‘Vaping’ is fast becoming one of the biggest product markets in the world, with its global value expected to reach $32billion by the year 2021. This could be a good time to invest in smoking full stop, as the sheer variety available to consumers provides a rolling supply of weird and wonderful products.
Retro
It’s not just vintage clothing that has seen a surge of popularity – toys, games and tech products are undergoing a retro revamp. Cameras, arcade games, mobile phones and the like are being redesigned to look old, but work like new.
From an investment perspective, these products (and the businesses that might sell them) tap into a profitable form of nostalgia. People can’t live without their modern tech products, but when offered a modern take on their first ever phone, for example, this taps into an area on which they are happy to spend their spare cash.
Arts, hobbies and reading 
Grouped together here, as they are fairly similar in appeal, but the re-energised market for all things paper, glitter and glue are becoming big business.
Adult colouring books, paper model making kits and the good old fashioned hardcopy novel are enjoying new found popularity. When commuters want to avoid staring at a digital screen before a long day of doing just that, reading a book may be their only escape, so investing in publishing or the re-sale of books could well be a good bet.
