How does our “Big Theme” investment approach work?

In a nutshell, we identify massive, world-changing “themes” — like the smartphone revolution I described — and we invest in them before anyone else.

We pride ourselves on getting to these big themes FIRST.

If you know anything about the stock market, you know the power of being “first.”

Take the power of being the first to know how a new development called “the Internet” was set to change the way we work and live.

Investors with access to this knowledge made over 9,000% in software maker Microsoft … and more than 10,000% in Internet plumbing maker Cisco.

A 9,000% gain turns an investment of $10,000 into $910,000.

That’s an investment return that can allow you to afford virtually any kind of lifestyle you like. You can buy boats, sports cars, vacations, and homes with that kind of money … or simply never work again.

The power of first is why I’ve dedicated my career to getting investors into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else.

3 Ways to Get Rich as a Big Theme Investor

In my book, big, investable themes that can help you build great wealth fall into one of three categories. Below, I’ll name and describe them.

One, technological innovation.

The story of mankind’s progress is a story of technological innovation. Innovations like the printing press, the Internet, railroads, cars, MRIs, antibiotics, air travel, telephones, electric power, and the personal computer have made us wealthier, smarter, and healthier.

They’ve allowed us to go from living in caves to landing on the moon.

This category may have the greatest power to make you a lot of money quickly. Nothing rapidly creates wealth on a massive scale like technological innovation.

Two, business innovation.

This is a broad category I use to classify big business breakthroughs.

While these breakthroughs often use technological innovations, at their heart is someone who figured out a better way to do business.

Take McDonald’s for example. It’s one of the most successful businesses of all time. McDonald’s didn’t become a huge success because it invented hamburgers. It became a huge success because it standardized production, held its restaurants to tough standards, and acquired lots of valuable land through its franchising system.

McDonald’s is one of the biggest stock winners of all time. If you bought McDonald’s in 1970 ($0.14 split adjusted) you’d be sitting on a gain of over 117,000%. That gain turns every $10,000 invested into $11,710,000.

Or, take Starbucks. The Starbucks founders didn’t invent coffee or the coffee shop. They just found a better way to operate coffee shops and market themselves. They were also exceptional at replicating the success of their early locations. Starbucks is a big business innovation winner.

The stock has returned over 17,000% for shareholders since 1992.

Nike … Hershey … Coke … Wal-Mart … Chipotle … Home Depot … are all huge business innovation winners that made their backers fortunes. This is why we are always looking for the next one.

Three, major economic or demographic shifts.

For 28 of the last 30 centuries, China was either the largest or the second-largest economy in the world. China has a long tradition of economic progress and innovation. It invented papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and the compass.

But things took a turn in the 1800s. Brutal political struggles and a series of military defeats at the hands of Europe sent the country into chaos. Japan took the opportunity to attack its neighbor in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It murdered and pillaged its way around China for decades. World War II brought more misery… and so did a bout with communist policies for much of the 20th century.

But around 1980, the sleeping dragon woke up. A man named Deng Xiaoping became China’s leader. Deng believed people should be free to conduct business and get rich. He relaxed the government’s onerous business controls. What followed was one of the greatest economic booms in history.

In the wake of Deng’s reforms, the country began building highways, skyscrapers, ports, bridges, factories, and power plants on a colossal scale.

A huge population of young Chinese people were there to do the work.

Of course, all that building consumed stunning quantities of natural resources.

To fuel its building binge, China consumed massive amounts of copper, iron ore, oil, natural gas, coal, zinc, and tin. This in turn created one of the biggest, longest commodity bull markets in history.

During this bull market, oil climbed from a low in the $20 per barrel range to $150 per barrel… a 650% gain. Copper soared from 75 cents per pound to $4 pound… a gain of more than 400%.

Since the stocks of commodity producers are leveraged plays on commodities themselves selves, they staged even bigger moves.

The share price of copper miner Freeport McMoran soared from $5 to $40.

The share price of oil producer Suncor Energy soared from $4 to $55.

The share price of iron ore producer Vale soared from $1.60 to $30.

The share price of diversified miner BHP Billiton soared from $5.82 to $66. (a more than 11-fold gain).

China’s extraordinary economic growth was made possible by technological innovation and business innovation. But what started it all was a major economic shift away from communism and towards free markets.

The China story alone shows us why we should always look to invest ahead of major economic shifts. This includes “demographic” shifts like the transformative Baby Boom Generation and the Millennial Generation.

***To sum up …

At MoneyWire, we are always on the lookout for massive, world-changing “themes” — and we invest in them before anyone else. We pride ourselves on getting to these big themes FIRST.

These big trends can be driven by technological innovation … business innovation … and big economic innovations.

Matthew McCall left Wall Street to actually help investors — by getting them into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. The power of being “first” gave Matt’s readers the chance to bank +2,438% in Stamps.com (STMP), +1,523% in Ulta Beauty (ULTA) and +1,044% in Tesla (TSLA), just to name a few. Click here to see what Matt has up his sleeve now. Matt does not directly own the aforementioned securities.