Ten years ago, I did not own any sort of smart device.

It’s difficult to imagine managing my life without it now.

Once I took the plunge and purchased one, the uses all scaled so quickly.

I even get the weekly report now of my total screen time (down 12% from last week, BTW).

It has become easy to take the tech for granted today.

I know people who still don’t own a smartphone. It’s difficult for me to imagine, but some have simply chosen not to use the tools available to them.

As individuals, we can make our own choices about how quickly we adopt new technology.

But investors don’t really have that luxury. If you want to grow your wealth, you must get ahead of the trends.

If you wait too long, all the big gains are gone.

Picking the winners isn’t always easy, but investors who want big gains – significant increases in wealth – have to pay attention to the leading edge and get there before everyone else.

I found myself thinking of this because two of the investment trends we track are increasingly mainstream.

Like many, I follow Matt McCall, editor of Investment Opportunities, to get the latest on the investing trends that can produce huge gains. Reading his material regularly is a must if you’re interested in the new technologies, new consumer trends, and new companies that could be become the next Apple or Netflix.

On Sunday we ran an essay by Matt in the Digest on the Tipping Point for Self-Driving Cars.

In that essay, Matt makes the point that technology changes reach a point where the returns are exponential – they snowball and accelerate faster.

And this is happening with autonomous vehicles. The pace of development is accelerating.

Then, I saw a report in The Atlantic that Waymo, Google’s subsidiary dedicated to self-driving cars, recorded more than 1 million miles in California last year. That’s more than twice as many miles as their nearest competitor, General Motors’ Cruise (448,000 miles).

California requires companies experimenting with AV on the state’s roads to obtain permits and report annual statistics. And that means the state gets data on the number of vehicles tested, the number of miles they drive and the number of disengagements (times when the car cedes control to a human driver).

The number of disengagements was particularly interesting. Waymo was again way ahead of the competition.

Waymo vehicles disengaged every 11,000 miles. Again, that’s way ahead of their nearest competitor, GM’s Cruise (5,200).

The thing is, California is not Waymo’s main testing ground.

Previously, I had read Matt’s piece on The Phoenix Experiment. Phoenix is the main testing site for Waymo. Here is Matt’s description of the program.

In April 2017, Waymo introduced its “Early Rider Program” in Phoenix. It offered self-driving car services to about 400 volunteer families in the area. As you read this, “robo taxis” are hauling “Phoenicians” to school, soccer practice, and the grocery store.

Phoenix was selected as home for this extraordinary test program because the state of Arizona has created a favorable regulatory environment for self-driving car development. Plus, there are no icy roads to navigate in Phoenix.

Waymo’s Phoenix Experiment has been very successful. Waymo reports that its self-driving car fleet is now driving more than 24,000 miles per day — the equivalent of an around-the-world road trip. Waymo also reports that its fleet has racked up over eight million miles in fully autonomous mode.

So Waymo is racking up millions of self-driving car miles in multiple states.

And they are not the only one.

In California alone last year, 48 companies tested AVs on state streets.

Some of the names you know: Ford, GM, Volkswagon, and Tesla, but plenty of companies you probably haven’t heard of. You can check out the list at this link.

Keep in mind that is just the companies with cars on the road, not all those with cars and tech in the queue for permits for 2019.

Clearly, the pace of change is accelerating. It’s all going to happen sooner than you think.

To keep up with that change, I encourage you to watch this presentation that Matt put together about the future of autonomous vehicles.

And speaking of unstoppable trends, last week saw some watershed news for marijuana stocks….

I’ve written before about Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), the marijuana REIT. Last Thursday, IIPR was added to the S&P 600 SmallCap Index and became the first cannabis-related company to join the index.

IIPR buys properties from medical marijuana growers that are already approved by their states. It then leases the property back to the growers. This arrangement gives the growers an infusion of cash, and IIPR gets regular rent payments under a long-term lease.

Matt recommended buying into this REIT late last summer and it’s a great example of all the different ways he views an investment trend. His subscribers are up more than 90% since his recommendation to buy it in early August.

Now that IIPR is part of the Small Cap Index, every fund that mirrors the index will buy it.

Marijuana stocks are joining the major indexes now.

The window of opportunity for huge gains on some marijuana stocks has passed.

But Matt is still looking out for and recommending the small stocks that could double, or triple returns for investors.

Matt made another marijuana IPO call today as part of his Cannabis Cash Calendar. Click here to find out more about Matt’s marijuana picks.

To a richer life…

Luis Hernandez, Managing Editor
and the research team at InvestorPlace.com