6A - Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Economic Changes
Opportunity #1 -- Investors prefer companies with more women in the workforce
a. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/20/762056390/investors-may-prefer-companies-with-more-women-in-the-workforce
b. I believe an opportunity may exist because like a lot of the people in which the study focused on, I believe a company with a higher concentration of women in the workforce is a progressive company that seeks to advance in opportunities and trends.
c. Customers with most opportunities include women and stockholders.  More women are being employed in the tech industry, and as a result, more people are buying stocks in those companies.
d. This opportunity is easy to exploit.  You can look into the demographics of a company and see how high the concentration is in women compared to other companies.

Opportunity #2 -- Boomers are not retiring
a. https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666
b. The baby boomers are not retiring, which means the younger generations aren't able to fill the jobs they are keeping.  Many boomers are not retiring due to the great recession in 2009, and others are simply wanting to work to fill up their time.
c. The people that this will heavily affect are the up and coming generations that need to fill those positions.
d. This will not be a very easy problem to solve.  As the boomers are getting older, they will have more health issues to battle, and they will probably not be able to officially retire, causing them to work until they eventually die.
Regulatory Changes
Opportunity #3 -- Trade thaw between USA and China
a. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-19/china-is-heading-to-montana-farms-in-latest-sign-of-trade-thaw?srnd=economics-vp
b. The trade war between the US and China is finally calming down, with the Chinese visiting farmland in the Western US.  The two countries are looking like they will finally eliminate tariffs, with China encouraging the purchase of American agriculture.
c. The customers with the most opportunities would include farmers and importers.  Farmers will once again be able to count on their crops going to a reliable source and importers will be able to continue their business without tariffs affecting them.
d. The opportunity will be easy to exploit, simply because of the years that people have already been exploiting them before the trade war began.  Now that the two nations are relaxing, they will simply be able to continue where they left off.

Opportunity #4 -- Federal reserve cuts interest rates
a. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761689949/fed-eyes-another-interest-rate-cut-to-prop-up-the-slowing-economy
b. Due to a rising risk of the ten year economic expansion slowing down, the federal reserve has cut interest rates for a second time with a span of seven weeks.
c. The customers with this opportunity include anybody that would get a loan on a house or a business..
d. The opportunity will be easy to exploit, as all it would really consist of is simply getting a loan with a lower interest rate.  However, many people may refrain from getting a loan with the expectation that home values will plummet.