Brian Hicks - Angel Publishing

The Secret of Rich Man's Row

I know you read a lot about investment strategy and how it pertains to stocks, bonds, options, ETFs, dividends, and all of the other commonly known vehicles and instruments available to casual investors.

However, I'd like to talk about something far more fundamental. I'd like to tell you about a federal law that has been on the books for more than 80 years.

A law that puts a limit on how much you can make investing.... And in no uncertain language, here's what it mandates:

Unless you have $1 million in liquid assets or can prove between $200,000 and $300,000 in annual income, you are legally barred from being a private equity investor.

While wealthy private equity investors are allowed access to companies like Google and Facebook years before they go public and can sometimes close gains of hundreds of millions of dollars on just tens of thousands invested (Google "Reid Hoffman" and "Facebook" and prepare to be shocked), you're limited to buying only public companies trading on the open market.

Don't believe me? The information is out there for all to see, so when you're done reading this, go check for yourself.

The federal securities laws define the term "accredited investor" in Rule 501 of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933.

It really shocks the senses when you wrap your mind around the implications here... And if you ask me, it's more of a cause for revolt than any CEO bonus or bank bailout.

There's a Way Out.

But I don't want to raise your blood pressure today — quite the opposite.

You see, there's a way you can circumvent this rule.

And you don't need a broker, a special license, or any qualifications at all to start.

The key is to target a very special category of stocks already trading on the open market.

They're out there, and believe it or not, they're growing — or about to grow — at rates very close to those some of today's most famous brands (IBM, Twitter, Tesla, etc.) experienced at their early "post-garage" stages of development.

It's called "The Secret of Rich Man's Row," and it's helped a small number of savvy traders achieve one percenter-caliber wealth with relatively moderate initial investments.

Think a million dollars made in a single month is a fairy tale?

Well, let me tell you personally — to some people, a million bucks a month is just another month.

Up until now, you've been all but excluded from living the kind of life associated with that level of income.

But all that ends now.

Profits like these, usually reserved for the already rich, can be in your grasp within just a few minutes' time.

To get the detailed report on "The Secret of Rich Man's Row," click here.

The Science of Penny Stocks

Dear Readers,

It gives me great pleasure to introduce my very good friend and longtime colleague, Alex Koyfman, as the newest member of Wealth Daily's editorial staff.

I first met Alex when he was fresh out of law school and looking for a way to kill two birds with one stone...

First, he wanted to leverage his investment talents into a full-time occupation. Second, he wanted to avoid practicing law.

We saw eye-to-eye from the moment we met.

Working alongside me, he did both, and in the years following, I watched him achieve his financial goals (he claims to have only just begun), travel the world, and become a fixture in a tightly-knit group of high-net worth investors, venture capitalists, and globe-trotting entrepreneurs.

These days, when he's not traveling, Alex lives in a custom-built house in one of the wealthiest communities in the country and has a "weekend" car, which he's let me drive exactly once.

To those of you who dream of being free of the constraints of the everyday grind — dream of being free to move around and do on a daily basis what most take weeks or months to plan — I introduce somebody who has accomplished just that.

I want to warn you, though: He's sometimes abrasive and often too blunt.

Nevertheless, I listen to what he has to say, and if you're serious about making the high-potential segment of your portfolio start performing like it was meant to, you should too.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Take it away, Alex...

Don't Get Hung Up On Word Choice, Please

A lot of people get uptight when they hear the term "penny stocks," so for those with delicate sensibilities, let's come up with an nice nickname to get all those heart rates down...

We'll use something fancy and technical, like “high-yielding micro-cap equity investing.” HiMEE, for short.

I'm not sure if that sounds better, worse, or just stranger still.

In all seriousness, though, high-yielding micro-cap investing is exactly what you are doing when you buy shares of a company whose total value is $100 million or less.

It's actually far more accurate than calling these stocks "penny stocks" because many such micro-market capitalization, or "micro-cap," firms trade shares at several dollars — it's all a matter of how many shares have been issued and how many are available on the open market.

The takeaway, for all who have been taught to tread lightly in this sector, is that trading micro-cap stocks isn't the Wild West show you've probably learned it was.

ALL companies, at some point or another (sometimes more than once), exist, live, and breathe as micro caps...

There was a moment when Facebook was valued at just $5 million...

There was a time when Google's stock, at its current share structure, would have been worth $0.05...

Same goes for Apple, Intel, and every other company that started from square one.

How the Rich Really Get Richer

The problem is that none of those companies were public when they were that small — and the only people investing in them were accredited "Angel Investors," a.k.a. venture capitalists... a.k.a. not everyday people who buy their stock from brokers or through online brokerages like Scottrade.

It's a federally mandated rule that people with less than $1 million in the bank or who make less than $200,000 per year (for two years or more as a single taxpayer) cannot participate in early development-stage, non-public companies.

Now, I know that as Brian's regular readers, many of you may be familiar with this. But I think the point is so important that I'm not scared of sounding like I'm regurgitating old news...

Federal law takes the prospect of four- and five-figure gains off the table for about 99% of investors out there.

And I'm not exaggerating about those gains, either. Some early-stage investors in Google and Facebook made 10,000 times, or 1 million percent, of their investments.

$40,000 invested in Facebook when it was a few months old would be worth close to half a billion today.

Hell, a graffiti artist hired by Mark Zuckerberg to decorate the company's first office, who took shares instead of cash, made $200 million.

$100,000 invested in Google during the early financing stages would be a cool billion bucks today. (I actually know somebody — a friend of the Brin family — who was offered this opportunity and passed it up... Ouch.)

It's an injustice, and it's just one of the ways the government keeps the rich getting richer and the non-rich... well, not getting richer.

But if you don't have $1 million in the bank and haven't been pulling down $200k or more for the last couple years, you're not completely out of the picture.

Standard Dividends are DEAD!

Global big box company Target just paid out a $0.43 dividend, which might seem great...

But even if you owned 100 shares, you’d have only pulled in 43 measly bucks.

However, by using an 8-minute stock market secret known as "daily dividends," you could pull in 10 times that amount today alone.

Not only that, but "daily dividend" payments are 100% guaranteed to anyone who knows about them.

Click here for the inside details...

Can You Be a Venture Capitalist? Yes... Quite Easily.

You see, there are companies out there today with the same multi-billion dollar potential that are just getting started... and that you can invest in.

They're publicly traded, and one day, they will hit the same peaks as some of today's household names.

My passion is finding these companies, getting them early, and watching the magic happen.

And regardless of what you may have heard about micro-cap stocks, there is a way to weed out the garbage.

Following a few basic guidelines, you can immediately reduce a vast majority of your risk exposure:

Avoid the Dividends: Earlier-stage companies need to be reinvesting, not doling out profits.
Cash Reserves: This implies a healthy, stabilized debt-to-equity ratio, meaning the company has room to operate, execute R&D and marketing campaigns, hire new staff, and buy new equipment. If the company is a body, the cash is the blood. You don't want an anemic infant.
Strong Profit Margins: A good profit margin isn't essential, but it's indicative of stability and further growth.
Gross Margins of 50% or Better: This implies that the business model works and will continue to keep the company profitable moving forward.
Tight Share Structure: Fewer shares for a small company means that a.) individual shares will be valued higher and thus carry an appearance of stability and b.) positive news will have a stronger effect on trading volume as a percentage of the total market capitalization. In short, good news will drive gains faster.

If you're seeing a pattern up there, it can be summed up in one word: stability.

I know; stability isn't something you typically anticipate in companies you think are on the verge of blowing up (not imploding, mind you). But it's exactly this sort of stability that sets young companies up for the meteoric growth you dream of.

Apple would never have been able to develop its first commercially successful PC, the Apple 2, without this sort of stability.

Google would never have had the liquidity to build its first data center without it.

So once you apply these filters, you're already nine-tenths of the way to finding a great company.

This is something you can do with just a few clicks of your stock screener.

That last 10%... that's the hard part.

That's where you need to actually to anticipate what has potential to be big tomorrow as opposed to today.

Calling market trends is the one common thread through all of investing, and it matters here as much as anywhere.

In fact, it matters the most here because here, trends can swing stocks double-digit percentages in mere hours — one stock I own did it just today.

Let me tell you, watching those green digits tick up never gets old.

I'm Fun Once You Get to Know Me

I'm going to be writing a lot about these high-performance micro-cap stocks in the coming months, so get ready.

I'll show you how to apply the filters, and I'll show you what can happen, as well as what shouldn't ever happen, as a result.

I will leave you with my favorite ancient proverb...

It was known to its original authors, the Romans, as: Audentes fortuna adiuvat.

It has been quoted throughout history, has been adopted as the motto of famous military units and naval vessels, and appears on the crests of a number of prominent families.

The English translation, much like the original Latin, is brief, to the point, and irrefutable:

Fortune favors the bold.

Alex Koyfman

How to Become a Venture Capitalist

People like to complain about the government to me.

I guess it's a natural side effect of a reputation like mine. People just know they'll have an ally or a sympathetic ear when they start complaining about things like taxes, gun control, our government's addiction to war, NSA spying, or any of the other hot-button topics that get cycled through the popular press.

But one grievance I see hear quite seldom — if ever — is possibly one of the biggest complaints I have with our federal government.

It's known officially as Rule 501 of Regulation D, as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Commonly, this rule is referred to as the "accredited investor rule," and as nice as things like "Wall Street Reform" and "consumer protection" may sound, this rule is one of the biggest limitations placed on American investors.

The rule defines an accredited investor as anyone who falls into any of the following categories:

An individual who an has individual net worth, or joint net worth with the person's spouse, that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase, or has assets under management of $1 million or above, excluding the value of that person's primary residence;

A natural person with income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000 for those years and a reasonable expectation of the same income level in the current year.

The rule includes provisions for trusts and institutions to hold this status as well, but all that matters for you is that if you're not worth $1 million or have not made $200,000/year for the past two years or a combined $300,000/year for the past two years in combination with your spouse, you don't get into this club.

And what, exactly, is the club?

Billionaires Don't Buy Stock Over the Counter

As an accredited investor, I can put my money into companies that are not publicly traded... companies that are in their early stages of development, where the potential rewards and the risk are both at their absolute highest.

Now, if your friend or family member starts a company, you can invest in it no matter how much money you have. But typically, most peoples' contact lists don't contain too many start-up business owners looking for capital infusions — and of those that do, few are ever going to deliver the kinds of gains that will change your life.

If you were an accredited investor, however, you could have invested in a company like Facebook back when it was worth just a few million dollars or Google when it only had 40 employees.

Those lucky enough to have gotten into those investments when it mattered walked away with the kinds of gains that could not just change their lives but even put their kids and grandchildren on easy street for life.

One investor in particular named Reid Hoffman got into Facebook at the ground floor and made $500 million on the day of the IPO...

His initial investment: $40,000.

Less than the price of a new BMW.

Sounds like fairy tale, right? Well, it's not. It's the truth. It happened.

Accredited investing is venture capitalism at its purest, and it adds new billionaires to the Forbes 400 every single year.

But, again, if you don't meet those basic criteria, you're never going to touch development-stage tech companies, dot-com superstars, or any of the truly meaningful investments.

The feds simply don't consider you "sophisticated" (smart, experienced, etc.) enough to risk your own money in such a manner.

How dare they, you ask? Well, I don't know how, but they do... And you can't do a thing about it except make enough money to get inducted into the club.

Well, that's not entirely true...

Is This Billionaire the Modern-Day Messiah?

He's restored hearing to the deaf (and made billions)...

He's given amputees working limbs (and made billions)...

He's revolutionized the treatment of type 1 diabetes (and made billions)...

Now his new company is helping 8 million blind to see again.

Be early on this one.

Turning a Bad Rule into a Potential Gain

You see, right now, there is a relatively new player on the investment radar that allows non-accredited investors to get into venture-caliber investments.

The company itself acts as an investment fund. It puts capital into development-stage companies, and it buys patents and technologies. Essentially, it does everything a venture capitalist might do, only it takes care of the legwork while allowing you to participate by buying the company's own stock on the open market.

Seems nice, right?

For those the government singled out, it is one of the only ways to get into the next Facebook or the next Google before they become household names.

The company is called Network-1 Technologies (OTC: NTIP).

Its business model is "the acquisition, development, licensing, and protection of its intellectual property and proprietary technologies."

Network-1 works with inventors and patent owners to assist in the development and monetization of their technologies — just as a venture capitalist firm might do.

Network-1 currently owns 21 patents covering various telecommunications and data networking technologies as well as technologies relating to document stream operating systems and the identification of media content.

Of particular interest is the Remote Power Patent, which covers the remote delivery of power over Ethernet networks.

It was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on April 21, 2001 and is set to expire on March 11, 2020.

The company has 16 license agreements with respect to Remote Power, which include, among others, license agreements with Cisco Systems Inc., Cisco Linksys Inc., Extreme Networks Inc., Netgear Inc., Motorola Solutions Inc., Allied Telesis Inc., NEC Corporation, and several other data networking vendors.

Another very appealing aspect of Network-1 is that it is a very small company itself, with miles of growth potential in the future.

Its market capitalization is just $51 million, and its share structure is tight, with only 25 million shares outstanding.

For those who appreciate and seek out risk of this caliber for the potential payoff, Network-1 is a great way to leverage a modest investment into small fortune.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Brian is a founding member and President of Angel Publishing and investment director for the income and dividend newsletter The Wealth Advisory. He writes about general investment strategies for Wealth Daily and Energy & Capital. Known as the "original bull on America," Brian is also the author of the 2008 book, Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century. In addition to writing about the economy, investments and politics, Brian is also a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox and countless radio shows. For more on Brian, take a look at his editor's page.

Investing in Simulation Technology

At this point, I'm assuming most of the people who read these articles belong to a generation that's quite familiar with video games.

I personally remember my first experience with the Atari 2600 as if it were yesterday.

It was the early '80s, and that day's visit to my uncle's house would forever change the way I viewed home entertainment.

Of course, say that to any member of today's youth, and you're likely to get laughed at.

Compared to games like Space Invaders, Galaga, and Pitfall, today's offerings like the latest Grand Theft Auto represent about the same level of advancement that an old Atari had over a yo-yo.

But games for entertainment aren't the only things played on modern computer simulators. In fact, some of the most serious simulators out there owe much of their existence to early pioneering technologies just like the kind I saw for the first time more than three decades ago.

Serious Games Get More Serious

Jet pilots, both military and civilian, have been using flight simulators since at least the early '80s... as have other professionals working in fields where live training is often too costly or too dangerous to rely on 100% of the time.

One particular occupation that is benefiting from the emergence of advanced computer processors right now is the job of the professional marksman.

Firearms training simulators have also been around for decades, but just like those early video games, they've changed significantly. Now, their link to the simulators of days gone is a distant one.

VirTra Systems Inc. (OTC: VTSI) is one particularly interesting company operating in the simulated firearms training space today — and despite the highly advanced level of its products and the high-profile government agencies that use its equipment, VTSI is a surprisingly small firm.

Its flagship model, the V-300, takes weapons training to a new level. Unlike previous single-panel shooting simulators, the V-300 provides a 300-degree wraparound experience, during which a marksman is challenged with threats from both straight ahead and the periphery, where hostile operatives are most likely to strike.

Realism Taken to a New Level

Another major component of firearms handling is the management of recoil — the equal and opposite reaction of the gun in the hand of the shooter that is felt the instant a round is discharged.

VirTra's simulator a marked improvement over the Nintendo-like light guns of the past, which generated no recoil and were thus useless in getting an individual accustomed to the noise and physical forces associated with discharging a real firearm.

VirTra Systems develops, sells, and supports its firearms training systems for law enforcement, military, or civilian use.

The number and type of scenarios it can generate are effectively unlimited — allowing for both indoor and outdoor engagements with hostile operatives ranging from Taliban insurgents to our own homegrown, gun-toting felons.

Aside from the top-of-the-line VirTra 300 LE, the company's products include VirTra 180 Simulator, VirTra 100 Simulator, VirTra Range Simulator, Top SME Content, Simulated Recoil, and Return Fire Device.

VirTra directly markets and sells its products throughout the United States, and customers include law enforcement agencies, military agencies, and commercial businesses.

The company sells simulators worldwide through a direct sales force and international distribution partners.

In May 2012, VTSI announced a sale of its VirTra 300 LE Simulator to the Hudson County Office of Emergency Management.

In February 2013, it announced the sale of a V-300, a V-180, and a V-100 to the Artemis Defense Institute in Lake Forest, California.

Fat is Your Friend

For years we've been fed the idea that a low-fat diet is essential for weight loss and good health.

This is WRONG!

It's much easier than you think to eat large portions and still be healthy and thin.

Here is the 'missing link' you've been waiting for. Every day counts, so act now and start truly enjoying your life today.

A Big Player With Even Bigger Potential

Just last week, VTSI announced that it successfully passed all factory acceptance tests for an international contract exceeding $2 million.

Now, I know what you might be thinking: Why is a $2 million contract such a big deal? This is a big, powerful tech firm, right? $2 million should be a drop in the bucket and hardly noteworthy.

Well, that's the surprising part...

You see, VTSI isn't a big, rich tech firm. With a market capitalization just shy of $8 million, this Arizona-based leader in the electronic firearms training industry is actually a microcap company.

This makes that contract I mentioned worth more than 25% of the company's entire net worth — and therefore a major step forward for the outfit.

For a risk-numbed veteran trader, this company is a true gem.

It's small, it's efficient, and its technology addresses a need that will only grow in the future (at least until human civilization stops making bad guys).

Moreover, the stock trades for just $0.05 as I write this article — down 40% from 52-week highs, putting it firmly into bargain country.

Can You Afford to Risk? (Can You Afford Not To?)

Now, most of you familiar with these tiny nano caps are also familiar with how unstable and potentially short-lived they may be.

VTSI is nothing like that. With an established customer base, a strong reputation in the industry, and a unique and highly functional product line, this is no fly-by-night, futureless penny stock.

I would expect shares of VTSI to move higher before the year is out — with each penny representing a 20% gain if you manage to get into it today.

Having said that, I'd also like to add that this stock is not for everyone. Indeed, I only recommend these tiny companies to those with thick skin and little to no risk aversion.

If that sounds like you, then this could well be one of the more exciting positions you build this year.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Drones Hit the Mainstream

It's crazy to think it's been years now since we first started hearing from the mainstream media that our own skies might one day soon be filled with tens of thousands of drones, photographing and recording our every move from miles up in the sky.

It's been so long, in fact, that most casual observers have already numbed themselves to these ominous warnings — meaning that if something like that really is in our collective future, the average Joe Schmo has already passively signed off on it and will do little to nothing to prevent or even slow the progression of such government intrusions into his life.

I know, of course, that you're not like that. You don't want the sky to become an unlimited canvas on which federal agencies can paint their Orwellian image of future society.

You want to fight back... but you don't know how.

Well, one way I've identified is to embrace the age-old adage, "If you can't beat them, join them," and get into the drone business yourself.

And by that, I mean tap into the rapidly expanding market for personal drones.

Thinking Smaller

For 2014, the federal government has earmarked $4.1 billion for all unmanned systems — most of the cost being absorbed by its fast-growing fleets of MQ1 Predators, MQ9 Reapers, and the world's most expensive and most sophisticated drone, the $131 million RQ4 Global Hawk, capable of staying in the air for 35 hours at a time.

Machines like that are obviously not in the cards for any civilian agency, much less any civilian.

There are, however, far smaller, more affordable cousins to these military machines that are in reach for millions of hobbyists, enthusiasts, and conspiracy theorists.

Now, when I use the term "personal drone," I know many of you are probably imagining a glorified remote control helicopter with a crude camera mounted on board.

Take Notes for the Holiday Season

I'd like to dispel that misconception right here and now. The things offered on the market today, costing between about $1,000 and $5,000, are fully evolved flying robots capable of staying in the air for upwards of half an hour, cruising at altitudes of up to and exceeding 1,000 feet, and operating with almost complete automation.

Many are controllable from a smartphone or tablet and can be programmed to follow a pre-determined route guided by GPS, maintain specified altitudes at every step of the way, and, of course, film anything and everything that crosses their paths in HD.

Machines like Hong Kong-based DJI's Phantom GPS Drone are perfect examples of what well-heeled beginners in personal droning can expect from their new toys.

The Phantom GPS Drone has a range of about 1,000 feet, is, as its name suggests, guided by GPS, comes equipped with a camera cradle, and will even return itself home automatically when the battery gets low.

The cost: $700.

For ranges of up to and over a mile, you can pick up a more elaborate autonomous UAV Micro Helicopter from Skybotix.

At $5,000, it's not cheap, but it has the range, the altitude, and the payload capacity to take high-resolution images of things far into somebody else's private property and probably far from where your prying eye should be.

Devices like this have other uses that are far less insidious than spying, however. Realtors have found small personal drones to be an invaluable resource as a replacement for expensive manned aerial photography equipment necessary for marketing premium properties.

A single helicopter rented for an hour, for example, will cost as much as an entire day with the most elaborate commercially available drone... And the drone will provide a level of stability and flexibility you could never dream of from a full-sized helicopter.

Unfortunately, most companies involved in the development and manufacture of personal drones are not traded publicly.

John Miller’s in Venice and You’re at Work...

Earlier this morning, John Miller verified a $17,544 deposit in his bank account while sipping an espresso.

Then he turned off his computer and went out exploring the streets of Venice with his wife.

They’re living there for a year thanks to the income John started making from a little-known investment program.

You can start collecting this income too by joining the same club as John.

Here’s how.

The Next Tech Obsession? I'd Bet On It

Some technology analysts have compared the current state of the drone industry to the personal computing industry of the early '80s.

It's early, it's growing, but the field is still full of start-ups and young private companies. It will take time for the herd to be culled and for the industry to turn these private affairs into household brands.

There is, however, a drone that's hitting a unique sector of the civilian drone industry: the super high-end civilian drone market, where drones are designed for companies and agencies that will use them for work, not play.

Called the Gatewing x100, this machine was the product of a private Belgian firm that was acquired in 2012 by California-based GPS, mapping, and surveying firm Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB).

At just 5 lbs., this is a small machine — but don't let that fool you. The fixed-wing aircraft comes with a 2.4GHz radio, a GPS unit, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope — as well as a Pitot tube very similar to the kind mounted on jet aircraft to measure air speed and flow.

Oh, and it can also generate a 3D map of the terrain it flies over, in real time, as it makes its autonomous orbits around a given area. It's the sort of thing the people at Google are probably drooling over considering what it could do for the satellite-quality resolution of their maps.

It can cover miles during its 45-minute range, and it can withstand bad weather including rain and snow.

Of course, at $40,000, it remains decidedly out of the price range of most buyers, but for professional photographers and surveyors, it's a remarkably cheap and efficient alternative to manned aircraft.

What spoiled rich kids and their techie hacker buddies will do with this thing, I don't know, and I don't want to know.

But the point is clear: the era of personalized drones is here.

Will it last forever? It's hard to tell.

I can only guess what sorts of regulations personal unmanned aerial vehicles will face if somebody with more money than common sense decides to take one for a spin over the nation's capital.

For the time being, however, it's a new market that's just gaining momentum... And Trimble is a great way to take part.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Investing in Mind-Reading Technology

Remember how you used to play outside with your friends when you were a kid?

You'd get dirty and get bumps and bruises as you ran around, raising hell and burning calories.

Today's children don't do that nearly as often, preferring instead to stay home and play the high-tech, ultra-realistic video games that were hardly in their nascent stages when we were that age.

But if you have a negative opinion of our modern fixation on technology and think the current couch potato philosophy is as bad as it can get in the 21^st century, what I'm about to say will make you feel... well, worse.

Evidently, the joystick of today is destined to become the Big Wheel of tomorrow — in other words, it's about to become obsolete.

Yes, we've already seen the marvels of the gesture- and motion-interpreting technology available on video gaming systems like the Nintendo Wii.

But the next step will involve less motion, not more.

Much less, in fact.

Watch What You Think

As you read this, an interactive studio in London by the name of This Place is perfecting the first-ever commercial application for which the only user interface is the mind itself.

You read that right. No joystick. No mouse. It doesn't even bother tracking where your eyeball is pointing. This app, appropriately called MindRDR, needs no such primitive tools to translate your thoughts into action.

The app is specially designed for the Google Glass and promises to alleviate the need to touch the head-mounted apparatus in order to start and stop filming or take still shots.

MindRDR uses a biosensor manufactured by privately held, San Jose-based NeuroSky to measure electrical impulses from specific regions of the brain and turn them into actions your Google Glass can use.

Using the app, you can already take photos, capture video, and even share both without so much as moving a muscle — except for those required to point your head in the right direction.

The app, according to its designers, can currently read four varieties of thought patterns as they register in your brain. Ultimately, they hope to expand this functionality to translate up to 18 different patterns — allowing for far greater freedom of use.

Let's get real for a second here, though... This isn't so much a product as it is a technology demonstrator.

The Google Glass/NeuroSky biosensor combo is anything but elegant. It's clunky, uncomfortable, not practical to wear outside, and suffers from other issues such as overheating — but the point is it works.

The Bottom is Here — It's Time to Buy

Right now, three companies hold the key to an explosion of wealth right here in America...

For now, the shares trade for well below their true values, but I can't see that lasting much longer.

You see, these companies pay out double-digit gains every single quarter.

They pay out so much that one man from San Bernardino, California just cashed a $13,364 check. And with their incredibly lucrative energy assets, shares of these companies are going to move much, much higher.

Conservatively speaking, I'm predicting easy 621% gains here. But I'll warn you... the faster you move, the more you stand to make.

Check out the full story here.

The First Step Down a Long-Awaited Path

Eventually, once these two incredible technologies are combined and perfected as a unit, we'll see longer battery lives, far more capabilities, and most likely even more interaction with other devices like tablets, smartphones, and whatever else might benefit from synergy with Glass.

At Google, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and resident futurist Ray Kurzweil must be giddy to see their newest piece of merchandise break such important ground.

It means the wearable revolution, which they now may indeed be leading, has more than just comfort and novelty in store for consumers in the coming years.

It means, after almost half a century of personal computing, man and machine can finally communicate without communicating... They can effectively combine into a single unit, where thoughts and commands are one and the same.

Still think this is just a cool new toy? Well, it will be that for sure, but it will be much more than that, too.

This system's early successes have implications for everything from medicine (surgery by joystick is already fairly commonplace) to defense — where things like shaky hands and imprecise motions were once an unavoidable hazard.

Are parents going to get annoyed that their kids are not lifting a finger during their spare time?

More than likely, yes... But twenty years down the line, I would be shocked if this technology didn't have as profound an effect on our society as the joystick has had since the early days of the Atari 2600.

As mentioned before, two of the three entities whose products have combined into this new technology are private.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), however, is not... And with advancements like this becoming a major trait of the tech giant, their prospects for the future remain as strong as the creativity of the engineers who invent, use, and reinvent their products.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Investing in Bomb Miniaturization

Most of us are old enough to remember the first ever news reports featuring first-person perspective footage of precision bombs hitting their targets in Iraq more than two decades ago.

A grainy, black-and-gray image of a building or a hangar would increase in size, drawing closer and closer until finally, the signal would cut off to fuzz.

Mentally visualizing the implications of that fuzz was more compelling than the explosions and scenes of destruction themselves — which we also got to see plenty of during that conflict.

Perhaps the most iconic sequence of all involved a laser-guided bomb hitting a four-lane bridge, as seen from the targeting camera of the bomber passing overhead.

I still cringe watching it more than 20 years later, anticipating the blast as each car slips through the crosshairs and imagining what the last one to make it through alive will witness in his rearview mirror.

The Quest for Accuracy

Between the end of World War II and the start of the First Gulf War, the number of bombs required to destroy a strategic target decreased by orders of magnitude.

Single light aircraft could do the work of formations of bombers and make it home to do it all over again, around the clock and in any weather.

However, even with innovations like laser and GPS guidance for free-fall bombs such as the GBU-12 and GBU-16, certain problems did remain — with accuracy remaining the biggest hurdle.

First- and second-generation precision guidance packages — commonly referred to as Paveways after the brand name given to the ubiquitous snap-on kits by their producer, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) — were a vast improvement over the area bombing techniques of WWII. Still, they only yielded a practical CEP (circular error probable) of 9.1 meters, or 30 feet.

That means 90% or more of munitions equipped with this package, dropped under acceptable conditions, will land within 30 feet of the desired aimpoint.

This was a marked improvement over the WWII numbers, which estimated that fewer than 20% of bombs dropped struck within 1,000 feet (300 meters), but it was still not ideal.

Big buildings like hangars, or large targets like parked airplanes, were still on the menu, but for smaller objects, multiple drops and large warheads (up to 5,000 lbs.) were implemented to ensure destruction.

Well, as you may imagine, that problem has come a long way towards being solved.

From Feet to Inches

CEP achieved by modern guidance packages has shrunken down past the magical 1-meter barrier — even on moving targets — ushering in the second revolution in aerial munitions since the Second World War.

In 1991, a single F117 Nighthawk would have been able do the damage it took 108 B17s to do to a German power plant in 1944.

And today, a single F/A18F Super Hornet, armed with up to 16 of the 21^st century GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs), effectively quadruples the precision striking power of the early '90s F117.

No matter what technology we're talking about, the name of the game is always miniaturization — and the SDB comports with this rule perfectly.

At 285 lbs., 70 inches long, and 7.5 inches across, this compact munition carries just 38 lbs. of high explosive — less than 20% of the amount filling the most common free-fall bomb in the U.S. arsenal and the basis for the most commonly used laser- and GPS-guided JDAM smart bomb: the MK 82 500 lb. bomb.

It's less explosive and more focused on precise delivery, and the end product is a small, extremely maneuverable weapon capable of striking moving targets the size of a small car traveling at 30 miles per hour from 45 miles away.

The SDB was even further improved with the introduction of the "Focused Lethality Munition," or FLM, which used composite materials in place of the traditional steel casing, except on places solely reserved for direct contact with or exposure to the target.

Less fragmentation means less unintended damage and injury.

Weapons such as this have allowed for low-risk attacks on high-value targets in urban areas, decreasing the danger to friendly ground forces and maximizing the element of surprise.

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More Focus = Less Collateral Damage

The Small Diameter Bomb uses a variety of guidance technologies in unison, combining GPS, infrared, and inertial guidance to seamlessly overcome deficiencies inherent in any single targeting method.

It's small, it's modular, it's universally applicable, and it can be configured to defeat soft and sensitive targets, as well as tackle heavily fortified objectives (like the reinforced concrete bunker below).

In spirit, its versatility and elegance (given the task) is almost reminiscent of the iPod — which speaks well for its design concept.

The company producing this weapon is Boeing Integrated Systems, a subsidiary of The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA).

I always talk about trends and being able to spot them; well, based on the design philosophy of the SDB, this one's a clear winner by any measure.

The reality is that in this world of ours, war is about as recession-proof as it gets.

At least with innovations such as this, the goals of war can be achieved with the least possible risk to those caught in the crossfire.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Revolutionizing Air Travel Data Sharing

On March 8, 2014, a Boeing 777-200 containing 12 crew members and 277 passengers vanished somewhere over the Gulf of Thailand about 40 minutes into its routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The jet was one of the world's most advanced modern wide-body passenger airlines, powered by the biggest, most powerful, and most durable turbofan engines ever made.

The carrier, Malaysia Airlines, is the main airline of Malaysia and an $18 billion-a-year company. It's hardly on a shoestring budget to maintain its fleet of modern aircraft (including the massive and revolutionary Airbus A380), a fleet that was due to replace its Boeing 777s this year.

While such disasters do happen from time to time (air travel as a whole has become roughly twice as safe over the last two decades), what sets this one apart — and what I think scares most modern people — is that the mystery stems from a total loss of contact.

The loss of contact was so complete — severing both voice communication and datalink between the plane and a number of reception sites along its course — that search parties didn't and still don't know where to search for wreckage.

The plane may have flown for hours without communication with the ground, something that people in an age of text message, Bluetooth, and constant cellular connectivity cannot accept... a cut in contact between a massive airliner and civilization.

The problem at the heart of this failure lies with something called the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, or ACARS for short.

A 36-Year-Old Digital Lifeline

According to its most basic definition, ACARS is a digital datalink system for transmission of short messages between aircraft and ground stations via airband radio or satellite.

In layman's terms, it's what keeps large aircraft in constant, continuous contact with people on the ground no matter where they are.

It's been around since 1978, and it's what makes modern air travel modern.

Even those of us who have never heard of ACARS intuitively know and expect something just like it to watch over us as we calmly, obliviously fly at the speed of a pistol bullet six miles up in the air.

The loss of flight 370 illustrates that for all of its marvels, ACARS still has its shortcomings, not the least of which is that sometimes coverage by ACARS is simply not possible.

In remote areas where satellite coverage is spotty and/or lower flying aircraft have no access to ACARS datalink sites, being lost and cut off from civilization is a very real prospect.

In Africa, for example, the terrain and the VHF or HF coverage prohibit the availability of communication for entire flights using ACARS — even for small- to medium-sized commercial flights.

Think about that one next time you consider going through with that safari you've always been dreaming of.

However, as you might expect, somebody is already working on a solution.

The Next Step in Inflight Data Sharing

The company is called FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd. (TSX-V: FLY), and it's doing for aircraft data sharing what your cellular phone did for your personal communications... making it universal.

As their business profile states, “FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd. designs, develops, and services real-time data communication solutions for the commercial, business, and military aircraft operators worldwide.”

Its products and services enable communication between pilots and ground support in situations where such support was previously either unreliable or unavailable entirely.

One of its flagship products is AFIRS UpTime — an automated flight information reporting system installed on aircraft that monitors the plane's vital systems, working in unison with the black box and providing voice and text messaging functions to allow pilots to communicate with ground support.

Another system developed by FLYHT is the FLYHTStream — a technology that executes real-time “triggered alerting” and black-box data streaming in the event of an emergency.

The company also builds the Dragon — a portable satellite communications device providing real-time communications enabled by the Iridium satellite network.

Iridium is a constellation of 66 active satellites used for worldwide voice and data communication from handheld satellite phones and other transceiver units.

Dragon takes this functionality to the next level by providing seamless voice and data communications through the cockpit and the pilot's headset.

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An Inexhaustible Market

Like many of the companies I profile here, FLYHT doesn't just build a product or a line of products... rather, it builds systems designed to tackle problems — in this case, global ones.

With innovations like AFIRS, FLYHTStream, and Dragon, modern pilots will be more in touch with potentially crucial assets on the ground than ever before.

They will have more information, be able to share more information, and be able to make decisions based on more data, delivered faster than ever.

However, even with this technical might and highly focused approach to product development, FLY is still a very small company.

Trading at $0.37, shares of FLY are at more than a 50% bargain to 52-week highs.

They're tackling a major problem; they've got working technology; they're established in the industry; and they've got potential clients in both the military and major commercial carriers.

Put all of this together in a $61 million market cap package, and you've got a true tech investor's dream.

In fact, the company is already recognized as one of TMX Money's most promising tech stocks of 2014.

I feel good about this one, but do your own due diligence.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

The Business of Burning WMDs

Not a week goes by that you don't hear about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the news.

It's either us hunting the Iranians' elusive — and perhaps nonexistent — nuclear development program or the Russians mentioning (not so subtly) that they've still got hundreds of warheads pointed at us — just in case we were thinking about throwing our weight around in their dealings with Ukraine.

If that fails, North Korea can always be counted on to stage another "test-firing" of one of its nuclear-capable, intercontinental ballistic missiles.

However, it's chemical weapons, also known as the "poor man's WMD," that pose a more realistic threat to political stability across the world.

They're deadly, they're cheap, they're relatively easy to manufacture, and they can be delivered using very primitive, portable missile and artillery systems.

Worst of all, some of the least friendly nations in the world have them.

Syrian dictator — or president, as he likes to be called — Bashar al-Assad is said to control hundreds of tons of sarin, mustard, and VX gas, with the capacity to produce even more.

The North Koreans, not to be outdone, have over 5,000 tons of blister, nerve, choking, psychoincapacitant, vomiting, and riot-control agents (fun sounding lineup), with the ability to produce as much as 4,500 tons more per year.

Russia has destroyed more than 60% of its stockpile, leaving it now with just 15,000 tons of the nastiest, deadliest chemical agents known to man.

We have no idea how much the Chinese have, but if the pattern holds, it's likely more than everyone else combined.

Turning Weapons into Smoke

Our own stockpiles are now down 89% from their peak levels, with the main three — mustard, sarin, and VX nerve agent — mostly incinerated at facilities such as the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS), located on a remote Pacific island.

Thousands of miles from any major population centers, the JACADS burned these noxious chemicals, releasing the waste materials into the sky, where the atmosphere absorbed and dissipated them to harmless concentrations.

This, along with burial deep underground in specially sealed canisters, was the main method by which chemical weapons were effectively "deactivated."

Aside from being harmful to the environment, these facilities and methods were costly, complicated endeavors to undertake.

The solution had to be modular, portable, and clean.

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Disposing of Mass Death in the 21^st Century

Montreal-based PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (TSX-V: PYR) already has the answer.

The company's proprietary technology allows for the portable, highly versatile disposal of nerve agents in a way that's so environmentally non-impacting that it can be done close to the theater of operations or storage location where the materials were recovered on portable platforms such as naval vessels.

PyroGenesis's Tactical Plasma Arc Chemical Warfare Agents Destruction System, or Tactical PACWADS, is designed to rapidly and safely destroy a wide range of chemical warfare agents as well as their precursors (anyone who's watched Breaking Bad will understand what a precursor is) in the field.

Pictured to the right is a Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System installed on board the lead ship of the U.S. Navy's newest class of supercarriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

Alleviating the need to transport enemy chemical agents to a remote location, putting soldiers and civilians at risk of ambush or the catastrophic release of their deadly payloads, the Tactical PACWADS can be operated on site to destroy the big three chemical agents: sarin (GB), mustard (HD), and VX.

Using a 9,000°F plasma torch, the compact Tactical PACWADS reactor and associated self-contained gas cleaning equipment will allow the crews to rapidly set up two readily deployable, mobile 20-foot containers and safely destroy up to two barrels of chemical agents per day.

It's an amazing development and a solution to a problem that is scalable and readily applicable to the tens of thousands of tons of deadly material slated for destruction around the world.

These systems can be based either on ships or out of standard shipping containers, with easy transportability to anywhere in the world.

9,000 Degrees of Market Versatility

However, it's important to understand that destruction of chemical warfare agents isn't the company's main business... That's just one application for its high-temperature plasma technology.

PyroGenesis's plasma torches, which are powered by electricity and therefore produce zero carbon emissions themselves, have been employed in waste-to-energy technology as well, allowing for the transformation of refuse materials and chemicals into clean fuels.

The extremely high-temperature torches are also useful in the creation of experimental materials, including the production of fumed silica (an essential component of everything from skin creams to adhesives), the production of nanomaterials, and the production of high-tech spherical metal powders.

PyroGenesis is the sort of company aggressive traders adore because it has a firm hold on a single, widely applicable technology with giant future prospects.

They also love it for the packaging it comes in.

PyroGenesis is in the stage of its life where there's the most to gain from future expansion and licensing deals — which are sure to be in the works given the company's high-profile partnerships with entities such as the U.S. Navy.

It trades at $0.60 with a $40 million market capitalization.

This compact share structure is exactly what profit-seeking investors like the most, because when big news comes (it just recently made headlines by signing a contract to expand its involvement with the U.S. military, with potential involvement in Syria), it makes a major impact.

As the chemical warfare agent disposal market is only now starting to pick up, and with at least half a dozen other high-profile applications for its plasma torch technology, PyroGenesis Canada is definitely one whose time has come.

Keep a close eye on it.

Yours in wealth,

Brian Hicks

Investing in Metallic Glass

Metal is one of the basic materials that have made human civilization possible.

From the very first gold trinkets 8,000 years ago to smelted iron circa 1500 BCE, the mastery of metallurgy has conquered civilizations, colonized continents, and built modern cities.

But now, in the second decade of the 21^st century, the very nature of this ubiquitous class of materials is being changed — on a molecular level.

Metals as we've always known them arrange their atoms in an ordered, crystalline structure in their solid form.

Just think of molten metal as water and solid metal as ice. It's not easy to shape, and it's often brittle.

Well, right now, a revolution in metal design has created something altogether different... It's called "metallic glass."

It's an alloy, meaning it's a mixture of a few different types of metal elements — in this case steel aluminum and titanium — but the novelty is in the way the molecules behave within the solid.

Whereas conventional metals are crystalline, this new class of metals more closely resembles glass.

A Metal... A Glass... A Liquid

When you melt the alloy down at extremely high temperatures and then cool it rapidly, the metal takes on a form known as amorphous solid, where the atoms are distributed randomly rather than in the geometric patterns seen in crystalline structures:

This novel state makes the metal far easier to shape using molds, much like a plastic, instead of having to be forged like conventional metals.

It's also simultaneously harder and more elastic than crystalline metals, as well as two to three times stronger and almost devoid of the kind of structural defects that plague standard metals.

If converted into a powder, it is the ideal substance for use in direct metal laser sintering, otherwise known as 3D printing.

Up until recently, amorphous solid metal alloy — or liquid-metal, as it's getting to be known — was only available in extremely thin, foil-type sheets.

But breakthroughs in "bulk metallic glass" manufacturing have allowed for thicker, far more versatile pieces to be formed and custom-made to tolerances that rival the best computer-controlled milling arrays available.

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From Science to Application

It's an exciting technology with an almost unlimited future, but what's even more interesting is one company that's already bringing the benefits of this metallic glass to consumers.

Based in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, it's called Liquidmetal Technologies Inc. (OTC: LQMT).

With 63 patents to its name, this company will have a firm grip on the amorphous solid metal alloy market for the foreseeable future.

Using computer aided design (CAD), Liquidmetal Technologies executes its clients' custom orders to the highest levels of precision, producing components that were impossible to fabricate just a few years ago.

Its components are cost effective, super strong, and highly versatile, and the company fabricates them for use in everything from aeronautical applications to medical instruments.

Just last week, in fact, LQMT teamed up with the University of Southern California’s M.C. Gill Composites Center to produce large-scale amorphous metal and fiber laminate sheets for space applications.

The work is funded by a NASA SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program.

Just a week earlier, the company joined forces with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for a technological demonstration of amorphous solids.

The technology has been so impressive so far that it's been featured on an episode of the History Channel's Modern Marvels and showcased in two special-edition timepieces made by luxury watchmaker Omega.

For some very compelling demonstrations, search "Modern Marvels Segment Featuring Liquidmetal," and look for the YouTube clip.

You'd think that in order to command a technology of this caliber and with this sort of future prospect, a company would have to be some sort of multinational powerhouse.

Not in this case. LMQT's market cap as of this moment is less than $95 million, and its stock trades for a miniscule $0.22.

Usually, penny stocks in this range are development-stage tech start-ups or resource exploration companies, but LMQT is a fully functioning operation with real clients and growing earnings.

With patents covering the process from so many angles, there will be even more profit potential from future licensing deals as this technology grows more mainstream in the coming years.

The stock is down close to 50% from year highs, but with the sort of press coverage the company's been getting for the last month, and with revenue up more than 30% from this time last year, I don't expect that dip to hold.

This is definitely one I will be following, and you would be wise to as well.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Cracking the E-Cigarette Market

Ever notice how when you learn a new word, you start seeing it pop up everywhere?

I've been told the phenomenon occurs because the human brain is wired to take note of familiar things while pushing the unfamiliar into the background in an effort to maintain focus.

Without this instinct, we would go through our days in a constant state of distraction, eternally overwhelmed and derailed by sights and sounds that make no sense to us.

Now, the same thing happens with facial recognition... and with objects, too, as I recently learned.

Driving home from the Delaware shore a few months ago, I saw a man in a nearby car smoking an electronic cigarette. Yes, I've seen these objects before, but I never really took the time to let the image sink in.

Well, for whatever reason — perhaps out of boredom — this electronic cigarette finally burned itself into my long-term memory.

Since that drive, carrying with me my newly acquired mental familiarity with this not-so-new take on a centuries-old vice, I've been seeing e-cigarettes everywhere.

A New National Habit

I see people puffing on them while seated at outdoor restaurants, strolling the sidewalks downtown, driving in their cars, and even sitting in the stands at high school baseball games.

They're everywhere, it seems... and without the stigma that a smoldering traditional cigarette would inspire.

To those not in the know, here's a bit of background...

E-cigarettes are primarily nicotine-delivery devices that work by heating a nicotine-infused liquid into a vapor, which is then inhaled.

Since no plant material is actually burned in the process, there is no 'smoke' nor any of the carcinogenic agents and carbon monoxide that come with it.

The market for e-cigarettes in the U.S. has been growing consistently over the past few years.

It is estimated to have quadrupled in size from around $600 million in 2011 to more than $2.5 billion projected for 2014.

Some of the key factors driving strong growth include increased awareness and trials, largely unrestricted marketing, and a growing retail distribution.

Big Names Swoop In

The Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) (previously named Philip Morris Companies, Inc.) — an $82 billion giant and one of the largest tobacco companies in the world — estimates that 90% of adult smokers in the U.S. are now aware of e-cigarettes and around two-thirds have sampled them.

Coupled with declining traditional cigarette sales, the rise of the e-cigarette was a compelling enough argument to cause the multinational tobacco powerhouse to enter the e-cigarette market with its MarkTen line.

However, it was a relatively late entry into this emerging market, with competitor Lorillard (NYSE: LO) — also a major player with a $21 billion market cap — controlling a full 50% of the North American market.

That means two things: first, that Altria will be playing catch-up, and second, that large chunks of the remaining 50% are still in the hands of relatively small players.

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Small Companies = Big Gains

Smaller, privately held companies like Ploom, which builds the now-famous and pricey Pax (pictured below), control a good slice of the remaining pie with narrowly focused products for a very specific kind of consumer.

There are many of these companies, each building handheld vaporizers and e-cigarettes capable of extracting vapor from plant matter and oils to be used with a variety of flavored tobaccos, as well as some less-than-legal substances.

The main issue from an investment standpoint is that for the major players like Lorillard and Altria, e-cigarettes are just a small piece of the revenue puzzle, with traditional tobacco — a declining market — still accounting for a vast majority of earnings.

There is only one public company out there at the moment whose main revenue stream comes from e-cigarettes, and that company is called Vapor Corp. (NASDAQ: VPCO).

At just $92.5 million total market cap, this stock trades for $5.62 (down from a yearly high of $10.00 but still up more than 100% from its yearly low of $2.75).

The Florida-based company designs, markets, and distributes electronic cigarettes, vaporizers, e-liquids, and accessories primarily in the United States and Canada.

Among the small, pure-vapor e-cigarette companies out there, Vapor Corp. has the third-largest retail presence behind Blu and NJOY.

Its products are in over 60,000 retail outlets in the United States... And yes, its vaporizers are compatible with marijuana — creating additional market potential as state laws regulating the drug are loosened.

Adding some certainty to risk-averse investors, the stock made its Nasdaq debut less than two weeks ago on May 30^th.

An Industry Still in its Infancy

So far, this tiny player has been showing telltale signs of arriving early to the ground floor of a rapidly expanding industry.

For 2013, third quarter net sales exceeded $6.4 million, an increase of $2.6 million or 66.3% from the comparable quarter the previous year.

Cost of goods sold increased 56% to nearly $4 million as compared to $2.5 million for same quarter in 2012.

This progress can be primarily attributed to increased sales volume, product mix, and lower average cost per unit achieved through larger volume purchases.

In that same time frame, gross margins increased from 35.1 to 38.9%, and operating income was $393,282 compared to an operating loss of $1,252,086 the year before.

This led to net income of $280,827 for the third quarter of 2013 compared to a net loss of $819,010 a year earlier.

A similar pattern is already starting to unfold this year, as the total market for electronic cigarettes looks to double for the second time in a row.

Sounds like I'm not the only one who's started seeing e-cigarettes with a new sense of familiarity.

In a time when smoking is more frowned upon than ever, Vapor Corp. is positioned perfectly to cash in on a market driven by the stigmatized but otherwise undiminished demand for nicotine.

Don't Let Your Chance Go Up in Vapor

A word of caution, however: at $5.60, this $92 million company has a fairly thin share structure.

With so few shares out and so much attention currently being given to this rising sector, even something like a Nasdaq listing won't be enough to decrease volatility.

This stock is destined to go up, and suddenly... perhaps even revisiting its highs from the end of 2013 at some point later in 2014.

And to those whose morals are making this investment decision difficult, just remember this: An investment with Vapor is an investment in a company that doesn't sell any traditional cancer- and emphysema-causing tobacco products.

The same thing cannot be said for an investment in Altria or Lorillard.

Get in on this one before it runs away.

Yours in wealth,

Brian Hicks

Anti-Munitions Technology Investments

One of my guilty pleasures is lurking in the comment sections of various media outlets, either arguing with regular members of the community or, occasionally, trying to provoke them into a credibility-destroying emotional tirade.

Yes, I am an internet troll... well, sometimes, anyway. But I do it for reasons beyond the brief bit of pleasure I get from making somebody with an opposing viewpoint question his convictions.

I do it because it is the best place to get a feel for popular opinion — a setting where anonymous posters can spew their thoughts, unfiltered and undiluted by the fear of having to account for them later.

Quite interestingly, I've found that the attitude among non-Americans, particularly Europeans, is that the U.S. military is ineffective, a shadow of its former self.

Their reasoning: Look at the ongoing insurgency in Iraq. Look at the Taliban in Afghanistan. They still exist, they continue to fight, and, by all accounts, they are finding new converts each and every day to join their ranks.

Clearly, the army that once beat the Japanese and the Germans in a two-front war has seen better days.

Destroying Empires, One Homemade Mortar Shell at a Time

This oversimplified thinking, regretfully, is more the rule than the exception these days.

What these commenters fail to understand is that fighting a guerrilla resistance is not like fighting a conventional army — an army that marches under a very visible, very prominent single flag.

Instead, when a modern army such as ours fights insurgents, guerrillas, or freedom fighters, as the locals typically know them, the modern army finds itself bogged down, subject to gradual attrition of troops and hemorrhaging of finances — a problem the guerillas do not have — with little or no actual gain.

To the guerillas, the fight is to the death, and the only financing they need comes in the form of popular support from the locals.

They're never gone... never defeated... never sapped of the willingness to continue. When well supported by the locals, they are almost unstoppable.

Asymmetric warfare has brought down empires, including the Romans, when the Germanic tribes first bankrupted the city-state and then dismantled it piece by piece.

It happened to the British Empire as well, when the American militias — many using ambush and surprise tactics to wear down the occupying forces — made the cost too great for the Crown to hold on to the colonies.

Asymmetric warfare was a plight on Hitler's Wehrmacht as it patrolled occupied Europe and tried to gain footholds in the East.

It created the quagmire American forces were forced to withdraw from in Vietnam in 1973... and it did the same to the Russians in Afghanistan a decade and a half later.

And it has continued to do the same today — twice in just over a decade — to the army that destroyed Saddam's armed forces, once the fourth-largest in the world.

Has Technology Finally Turned the Tables on the Table-Turners?

Well, for the first time, it's possible that guerrilla warriors have hit a wall... a limitation to what they can do.

The solution wasn't a system built around a specific task, as almost all weapons systems are. It wasn't built to destroy an airborne threat, to engage ground targets, or to repel attacks from the sea.

Instead, this system was designed to deal with the element of surprise — whatever that surprise might be.

On a battlefield where an enemy can come at you in a plain, unmarked white van or a motorboat or can fire improvised projectiles from mobile launchers and then escapes into the shadows, a tool can only be effective if it can react quickly and to a multitude of threats.

And that is exactly what Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has done.

The product currently in testing is the Area Defense Anti-Munitions system, known by the catchy acronym ADAM.

With a portable 10-kilowatt laser at the core of the system, ADAM is designed to engage everything from Qassam-variety unguided rockets to small watercraft such as powerboats and inflatable fast-attack boats.

Earlier this month, Lockheed put ADAM through its first tests against maritime targets, during which the prototype successfully disabled two boats at a range of approximately 1 mile.

The ground-based system's high-energy laser burned through multiple compartments of the military-grade small boats operating in the ocean.

The company previously demonstrated the system's capabilities in engaging airborne targets, including small-caliber rocket targets and an unmanned aerial system target.

The system can reliably track moving targets at a range of more than 3 miles, and its 10-kilowatt fiber laser can engage targets up to 1.2 miles away.

"Our laser weapon initiatives leverage commercial products and processes, focusing on affordability for the user," said Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed Martin CTO. "Lockheed Martin continues to invest in advancing fiber laser and beam control technologies, as these successful ADAM tests demonstrate."

The ADAM design couples commercial hardware components with Lockheed Martin's laser beam control architecture and software to affordably deliver the performance required to rapidly dispatch close-in threats with a virtually inexhaustible ammunition supply and low per-engagement cost.

"Our ADAM system tests have shown that high-energy lasers are ready to begin addressing critical defense needs," said Tory Bruno, president of Lockheed's Strategic and Missile Defense Systems. "Putting revolutionary technologies to work in practical applications is a hallmark of innovation at Lockheed Martin."

The Dollar's Problems Can't Be Fixed

Quantitative easing. Over $18 trillion in debt. China rising.

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Not Too Big to Succeed

As the biggest government contractor in operation today, Lockheed is always a good bet for that slow, conservative play.

Delivering close to 150% gains over the last four years, it is definitely a popular way to go as a portfolio cornerstone... but that is not why I'm writing about it today.

The development of products like ADAM, with the company's multi-faceted approach to solving an age-old problem, shows to me that despite its size and success, Lockheed is not the big, cumbersome, rigid giant that so many cynics like to think it is.

Yes, it makes tens of billions off of government contracts, which it is almost guaranteed to land simply by virtue of its reputation and the amount of cash it can throw into product development.

But the company is still pushing the envelope and still working towards solving problems — not just prolonging the market for its products.

Systems like ADAM and its successors will change the way modern armies fight wars. These changes will certainly render many currently used systems obsolete — a double-edged sword for a company that stands to lose revenue from other product lines.

However, progress is progress, and it's good to see that a company this big and this powerful is still pursuing it.

Lockheed currently trades in the $163 range, or about 3% off its all-time highs, which came earlier this month.

However, as its flagship product, the F-35, nears operational status, and with projects like ADAM, the future for continued growth looks about as good as the prospect for continued unrest across the world.

Morbid, perhaps... But true, nonetheless.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Profiting Today from Tesla's Future Battery 'Giga-Factory'

As you may already know, the world's hippest electric car maker, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), is about to broaden its revenue profile by building the world's biggest rechargeable battery production facility.

The factory, whose exact location Tesla has yet to unveil, will cost between $3 and $5 billion, employ 6,500 people, and sprawl across 500 to 1,000 acres of land situated near highways and railways.

For the factory's own power generation, there will be ample space for a few hundred megawatts of solar panels and some wind turbines.

It's ambitious, to say the least.

Due to start production in 2020, the factory will be the world’s largest battery-making facility, with production peaking at 500,000 lithium-ion packs (the same number of cars Tesla aims to produce that same year) — more than the entire world’s current capacity.

In short, it's a big deal. It will all but certainly disrupt lithium-ion battery pack prices globally.

But there is one small, crucial element to this project that you probably haven't heard about yet — one company owns the intellectual property rights to the batteries Tesla will be churning out, and they will generate royalties on the same magnitude as the factory itself.

Increasing Flow of Royalties?

The company is called Polypore International Inc. (NYSE: PPO), and it could be a very efficient way of tapping into the profitability of this new factory without paying the premium price for Tesla's stock... a stock that's seen its share of bad days this year after the company reported a $49 million first-quarter loss.

Polypore, based in Charlotte, N.C., produces microporous membranes that are used in medical devices, electronic products, and even lawn and garden equipment.

Its Celgard division, however, produces the lithium battery separators found in consumer electronics and electric cars.

And here's the really interesting part...

Sumitomo Corp. (OTC: SSUMY) supplies the separators that Panasonic uses to assemble cells for Tesla’s Model S sedan — and it pays an undisclosed amount in royalties to Polypore to use some of its lithium-ion separator intellectual properties.

Extrapolating from sales and other data, and including the increased potential from Telsa’s planned battery plant, analysts estimate that Polypore could be on the receiving end of a $20 million-plus royalty stream from Sumitomo's more than $700 million in annual separator demand.

For a company currently valued at $1.3 billion, this boost in revenue could have seriously positive implications — especially given that the stock is still down 10% from 12-month highs.

Partnership?

However, there is another potential scenario here.

Given the importance of Polypore's separators to the success of this multi-billion dollar project, it could be more likely that Tesla will sidestep the red tape and simply partner with the company.

The latest analyst predictions are saying that this is the most likely path for Tesla and Polypore — a prediction that caused a stir earlier this week, sending Polypore's stock up 3.75% in early trading this Wednesday.

Although it's not yet certain that a partnership is the way this will unfold, given the low cost of Polypore's separators, the company's positive reputation, and its status as the only lithium battery separator producer in the U.S. (where Tesla's factory will be located), the chances are better than 50/50 that this is exactly how things will play out.

Such a deal could potentially double Polypore's income, with revenue from Tesla accounting for half or even more than half of its total business.

Remember what I keep saying about predictable trends...

You don't need to be especially clever or original to spot them. In fact, it's probably better if you're not too clever, because a predictable pattern is also an easily noticed one.

This is one of those patterns.

Tesla, a company that was virtually unknown to the public as recently as 2009, is today one of the world's most famous brands.

The story of its stock's meteoric rise (146% up from 12-month lows, even with the recent correction to below $200) parallels the rise of the company's cars from automotive novelties to regular sights on public roads.

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Don't Beat Them... Buy The

However, as celebrity venture capitalist and founder Elon Musk has clearly realized, in order to take the next big step, Tesla needs to gain a stronger foothold in the industries crucial to producing its flagship products — just as John D. Rockefeller did when he bought up railroad lines to more efficiently transport his oil around the country.

Polypore occupies an enviable strategic position within this dynamic because either its lithium battery separators or the licenses to produce them are essential to Tesla's ongoing growth.

And since it's a relatively small company, this deal will wind up being that much bigger to shareholders.

Here's the catch, though...

The day an announcement is made on the partnership will be a day too late to buy Polypore stock.

Once the news hits the wires, it will be old news. That's just how the cookie crumbles when you're not an insider.

However, before you call this one a gamble, just remember one thing: Polypore's revenues will increase no matter what happens.

It's just a question of how much.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

China's E-Commerce Revolution

China's meteoric rise to the top of the global financial food chain has been one of the main topics of conversation amongst economists — both professional and amateur — for the last decade and a half.

In that time, the nation was transformed from what was popularly perceived to be a vast, mysterious, and technologically backward communist nation into the image of a 21^st century superpower.

One of the driving forces behind that ascent, as well as one of the effects of it, has been the rise of the Chinese middle class.

Middle class — a term more commonly associated with 20^th century America — now applies more and more to a rapidly expanding population of Chinese who, in the last generation, left their villages, moved to the cities, and adopted a modern lifestyle in order to participate in the burgeoning economic potential of the nation.

More than doubling in the first decade of the 21^st century, China's industrialized, city-based economy brought a quarter billion new inhabitants from China's rural countryside into urban areas.

In the process, disposable per-capita income for the average Chinese also shot up, quadrupling within the same timeframe and creating in China something that would have seemed unthinkable to those who were old enough to remember the times of Mao: a consumer class.

And that consumer class continues to grow today.

In 2011, for the first time ever, more Chinese lived inside urban centers than outside of them... Today, that figure stands at 54%.

Impressive progress, but still a full 20-40% behind the U.S., members of the EU, or Japan.

Scrambling to Catch Up

But for investors, this is a good thing, because what we've got is a pattern with an already established outcome.

You see, China will eventually reach urbanization rates of 70% and 80%, and the 300–450 million new city dwellers taking part in that exodus will all take up the habits that current city-dwelling Chinese have been enjoying since the turn of the century...

Namely, buying stuff online.

It's the one habit that tends to unify modern, middle-class people from around the world. Those with disposable income, a credit card, and an internet connection all do it, and at an increasing frequency.

There's one company right now operating in China that has followed the national rise to modernity just about every step of the way... And as the nation continues to modernize, so will this company continue to draw nourishment and growth from the increasing flow of online commerce.

The company is Alibaba, and it's the biggest online retailer operating in China.

Packages shipped through its two main websites, Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com, now account for a full 60% of the packages shipped through the Chinese postal system.

Sounds like market saturation, right? Well, in most cases with numbers like these, you'd be correct.

Alibaba accounted for an astonishing 70% of market share for all online transactions executed in China as early as 2005 — making this rate of growth utterly unsustainable in the future.

However, keep in mind that this is a society that still required ration tickets for some supermarket items as recently as the 1980s.

As China produces new consumers at a rate far outstripping anything seen in the West — even at the peak of the industrial revolution — Alibaba's prospects for the future are as bright as they come.

$1 Stock Corners the Wolfberry Shale

A small oil company has taken over a huge swath of land in West Texas.

It now has a stranglehold on a region that is producing nearly 2 million barrels per day, and it's only a matter of time before herd investors take notice.

We cover all of the details — including the potential 1,000% gain — for this $1 stock right here.

2014's Biggest IPO?

This makes the company's news from earlier this week perhaps the most important stock-related event of the year.

On Tuesday, Alibaba filed papers for an initial public offering, seeking to raise at least $1 billion.

For a company that had $7.5 billion in revenue last year, the $1 billion filing is nothing but a placeholder on its registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This announcement sets the stage for the technology industry's biggest IPO since Twitter and its early investors collected $1.8 billion when the social networking giant went public last fall.

According to rumors, Alibaba could try to raise more money and even surpass the $16 billion Facebook and its early investors raised in the social networking leader's IPO two years ago.

In my mind, however, comparing Alibaba with either of the last two superstar tech IPOs is arbitrary and valid only because all three happen to deploy their services via the internet.

Yes, Alibaba is an online-based operation, but it serves as a retailer with a very broad and predictably expanding market — not as a social network with a revenue model that is nebulous at best.

I think a better comparison would be with Wal-Mart, which gave an entire class of American consumers access to one-stop convenient shopping at bargain prices when it took its chain from regional to national two and half decades ago.

The differences, however, might put the Alibaba story into its own class.

Chinese outnumber Americans by about 5 to 1. Just under half of China's citizens are still waiting to be assimilated into 21^st century consumerism, and when they are, it will be largely thanks to the instant-gratification potential available with online services just like Alibaba's.

With growth potential driven by forces like these, profit potential for investors will be titanic.

In fact, analysts recently polled by Bloomberg News valued the company at nearly $170 billion, while some expect that valuation to reach as high as $250 billion once trading commences.

Whatever happens, expect this IPO — whose debut date is still a mystery — to be the biggest one of the year for the tech sector.

Keep a very close eye on this one.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Virtual Reality is Here... Again

Some of you may recall the first time the term "virtual reality" entered the popular vernacular.

It happened sometime in the early 1990s, and this technological revolution — which wasn't really technological or revolutionary — spread its tentacles through the public consciousness as fast as popular culture could carry it.

The idea was simple: Virtual reality, or VR, was an alternative world people could enter and inhabit using either a headset or an entire body suit. Through sight, sound, and even touch, their minds and bodies would experience the artificial world of their choice.

We learned about this magical technology through movies like Johnny Mnemonic, Lawnmower Man, Virtuosity, and even the Michael Douglas drama Disclosure, which used the technology not as a centerpiece of the storyline but as a minor plot device, making us, the audience, think this was no longer the stuff of science fiction but a glance at the very, very near future.

However, the reality of VR was far less impressive.

In fact, the closest thing we ever got to virtual reality at home came in the form of early '90s consumer bombs like the Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Sega Virtual Reality headset.

Both products came in attractive, high-tech looking packaging, but they failed to deliver anything close to actual virtual reality, settling instead on providing a basic, two-dimensional image on a small, low-resolution screen that just happened to be mounted within a headset instead of sitting comfortably halfway across the room.

It wasn't so much virtual reality as virtual virtual reality... An image of an image, and one that quickly dissolved the initial excitement.

The idea, as far as consumer tech goes, was shelved for years and largely forgotten as high-resolution flat screen technology and dynamic surround sound satiated our collective appetites for new and exciting ways to experience computer-generated environments.

New Beginnings

Today, however, this idea that grew old before it was even properly invented is starting to make a comeback... Or — more precisely — after a false start, it's finally about to arrive.

In 2012, Oculus VR Inc., then a privately held company, invented — or should I say reinvented — the concept of the personal VR headset when it built its first prototype of the Rift headset.

I would explain what this thing does, but I really don't have to — you probably already know.

The Rift, plainly put, does everything the virtual reality headsets of 1990s did — and everything the "virtual reality" pretenders of that same era failed to do.

It has stereoscopic 3D, meaning it beams a slightly varying image to each of your eyes to very closely simulate a three-dimensional environment.

It also has active field-of-vision tracking, so if you turn or tilt your head, the image you see changes just as it would if you turned your head in real life.

The result of these two innovations, combined with an advanced sound package that also takes advantage of the stereoscopic effect to simulate the directionality of noises, is essentially everything we were promised almost 20 years ago in a small, tight, functional package that's light enough for your average consumer to wear and use.

Before you click into your Amazon account, however, I would like to mention that this device is not yet available to the public.

Much like the Google Glass, Oculus chose to release the Rift only to developers and industry pros in an early launch to help iron out the kinks and problems and test the device on some of the first-person perspective games.

Because games must be specially designed to work with the Rift, Oculus also created a software development kit that software engineers can use to integrate the headset to the new applications.

According to Oculus, game integration will begin with PCs and smartphones and be followed by consoles at a later date.

But don't let that wording get you down, as the real deal is fairly close to becoming available on the open market.

The Pros Are Already Playing... You'll Have to Wait

As of this moment, games with full or partial Rift support include Left 4 Dead, Skyrim, Portal 2, Half-Life 2, and Bioshock, with many more titles set to join that list before the systems go on sale.

Although exact dates and pricing for commercial release are not certain as of this moment, the general consensus is that the mass-release device will cost less than $350 and go on sale either later this year or in early 2015.

My personal prediction is that unless something goes seriously wrong with rollout, the Rift will likely be the cause of more than a few zombie apocalypse-style rushes come 12:01 a.m. next Black Friday.

These potential problems, whatever they might be, became far less likely on March 25, 2014, when Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) had decided to acquire Oculus for about $2 billion — with $300 million of that going to financing future development of the device.

But is this enough to fuel the VR's second coming into a bona fide revolution?

The question itself is wrong; Oculus is not alone in pursuing this one-time dream of sci-fi writers.

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Not Just a Fad

Just a week before Facebook announced it had acquired Oculus, Sony Computer Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Inc. (NYSE: SNE), released news of its own when it publicized Project Morpheus — its answer to the Rift.

"At SCE we view innovation as an opportunity to build on our mission to push the boundaries of play," said Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios. "Project Morpheus is the latest example of innovation from SCE, and we're looking forward to its continued development and the games that will be created as development kits get into the hands of content creators."

Targeting the exact same market as the Rift, Sony's offering promises to have much of the same functionality and be tailored to work with the iconic Sony PlayStation platform.

So what's the bottom line here?

Well, for one thing, this isn't going to be another false start... With directional tracking and stereoscopic video technology both proven and perfected through at least two generations of gaming systems and high-resolution flat-panel televisions, all of the foundations for modern virtual reality — true virtual reality — to succeed this time around have been laid.

20 years ago, it was just a novelty with a highly misleading name.

Today, we're looking at the next step not just in gaming but in a wide spectrum of full-immersion computing.

As if today's kids needed any more reason to stay indoors...

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Tiny Tech Firm's Smart Glass Success

According to a 2012 study conducted by IHS, wearable technologies will account for more than $6 billion in sales in the year 2016.

The world market for such things as smartwatches, health-monitoring bracelets, smart clothing, and whatever else the geniuses in the R&D departments of today's tech leaders come up with is expected to hit an estimated 171 million devices — a greater than 10-fold increase from the 14 million figure cited at the time of the study.

Of those 171 million devices, a vast majority will be privately-owned gadgets worn outside of a work setting for doing things like taking photos, sending and receiving messages, engaging with social networks, and the rest of the functions you generally expect from your current smartphone.

One of the biggest and most anticipated of these devices is the Google Glass — which we've written about at length.

Want to Be the First on Your Block With Smart Glasses? Forget Google.

You've probably seen the ads, pictures, and reviews from early testers. Indeed, for a product that has been shrouded in exclusivity since a handful of dedicated techies were "selected" for testing, this device has hardly been hiding its secrets.

Even prior to its full release, expected later this year, the Glass has virtually become synonymous with the words "smart glasses."

However, amidst all this hoopla, another, far less sensational device has appeared on the market and achieved the status of commercial availability.

If the airy, angular design of the Google Glass finds its inspiration in the mythical land of technological enlightenment, then the M100 Smart Glasses — designed and marketed by the Vuzix Corporation (OTC: VUZI) — would be more at home on the face of a Borg drone or a young Darth Vader.

Built around the principle of monocular data display (the same idea that was pioneered on the weapon-targeting systems of attack helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache and later borrowed by the designers of the Google Glass), the M100 snaps onto your favorite pair of goggles or sunglasses, its tiny screen hovering several inches in front of your preferred eye.

Definitely not as stylish as the Glass, the M100 is, nevertheless, highly functional.

Function Over Form

It is, in essence, "an Android-based wearable computer, enhanced with a wearable monocular display... with recording features and wireless connectivity capabilities designed for commercial, professional, and prosumer users."

"Its pre-installed apps can be used to record and playback still pictures and video, track timed events, manage a calendar, link to a phone and more. The M100 is compatible with thousands of existing Android apps and easy access to developer resources enables the creation of custom apps to suit virtually any need."

According to the Vuzix description, the M100 has all the capabilities of a modern smartphone in a hands-free, wearable device.

It, of course, contains an HD camera for still picture and video capture and enables the user to store his or her content in expandable onboard memory or stream it.

Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity makes it easy to pair with another Android device or connect wirelessly to the Internet.

An integrated head-tracking and GPS system can not only provide apps with your location but even the direction and angle of your current view for “unprecedented situational awareness.”

Cheap and Available

And at $999, it comes at a significant bargain over the Explorer version of the Google Glass, which — unless you're a software developer — you still can't have for $1,500.

I know it might sound a bit too good to be true, but this device, despite its relative anonymity, has already received accolades from the industry.

In 2012, when the Google Glass was still just a fantasy for everyone but Google insiders, the M100 was the recipient of the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Award BEST OF INNOVATIONS and was also selected as Best Technology in the Wireless Handset Accessory category.

So why, then, have you not heard about this thing yet?

Well, there's one main reason: While the Google Glass is designed as a "life accessory" for the well-to-do tech-savvy crowd, the M100, despite its versatility in using commercially-popular apps, was more geared for the working crowd.

Tasks like documenting inventory, monitoring work environments, coordinating cooperative tasks on the job site, and a variety of other less-than-hip functions were clearly in the design directives over at Vuzix.

However, this should not impede commercial popularity of the device. Remember, Google itself, from its first days, was designed as a tool for academics to more efficiently find and share information with one another. The fact that it blew up into one of modern history's most important consumer products was just a side effect of its simple yet effective functionality.

And so the story might go with the M100.

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Public Relations Ramps Up

This is a fact not lost on management at Vuzix, who announced this past Wednesday, April 23, that they will be contributing the devices to AT&T's Hackathon Developer summits this spring and summer.

Mobile App Hackathons are events produced by the AT&T Developer Program that are designed for attendees (technical & non-technical) to build apps, compete for prizes across different categories, meet new people, and scout for teammates to work on new or current projects.

“We are proud to be attending and participating at the AT&T developer events this year. This serves as a great opportunity to support AT&T and provide visibility for our products, particularly our award-winning M100 Smart Glasses," said Paul Travers, Vuzix CEO. "We look forward to encouraging and helping world class developers use the latest tools and technologies at their disposal to create innovative solutions.”

If you're intrigued by the M100, prepare to be even more intrigued by the company behind it.

Most outfits introducing devices of this sophistication and usability to the commercial marketplace, on anything but the most limited scale, are usually medium- to large-sized firms with multinational production and marketing capabilities.

Vuzix, as of today, is a tiny, $30 million company whose stock trades just south of $3.

Based in Rochester, NY, it was founded in 1997 and represents a small but healthy contingent of newly-rising North American tech companies with product lines rooted not in the present but in the future of commercial consumer goods.

This is one I highly recommend you keep your non-electronically-augmented eyes on. I know I will.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Atmospheric Satellite Technology

We've all heard of communication satellites.

They were invented in the late 1950s with Sputnik, the world's first satellite, which was launched by the Soviets in 1957 and transmitted a basic electronic beep

These objects stayed in orbit by maintaining orbital velocity — about 5 miles per second — which allowed them to outrun the power of Earth's gravitational pull and remain in perpetual free fall.

Launched in 1962, the world's first commercial communication satellite, the Telstar, was a relatively low-tech, gas-filled sphere made of paper-thin Mylar.

Despite these modest beginnings, communication satellites forever changed the way people send and receive information, allowing for instantaneous trans-global communication without the need for cables or relay stations.

Satellites have become remarkably diversified since those early days, growing more and more specialized as they took on tasks ranging from high-resolution photography to weather analysis.

They have, however, remained limited by some very profound drawbacks — namely, the costs of getting them into orbit, the costs of repairing them in the event of malfunction, and the costs of manufacturing sensitive electronics capable of withstanding the extremely hostile environment of space.

Well, today, a new alternative is about to come into its own, and it's a technology with the potential to change the world again...

They're called atmospheric satellites, and if the original orbiting variety seemed like science fiction, these machines will make them look downright common.

Not Your Daddy's Drone

Using giant wings to remain in the air, atmospheric satellites are actually airplanes — but aside from their outward appearance, they have little in common with the airliners you see in the skies every day.

First off, as far as winged aircraft go, they fly high... very high. With an operating altitude of 12 miles (about 60,000 feet), today's atmospheric satellites cruise at twice the height of standard commercial airliners — close to the operational ceilings of modern combat fighters.

Second, they carry no humans. Much like the reconnaissance drones we've come to know in the 21^st century, these flying machines need no pilot.

Unlike those drones, however, atmospheric satellites require little to no human intervention at all in the execution of their missions. They have preset routes and follow them autonomously, requiring the help of human technicians only for course corrections.

Finally, these high-flying robots don't use fossil fuels, preferring instead to run off the one resource all things living on Earth enjoy in unlimited quantity: the sun.

Because of this infinite fuel source, atmospheric satellites have the potential to stay aloft for very, very long periods of time... Years, in fact.

It is this indefinite flight time that qualifies them as satellites as opposed to simply unmanned air vehicles. Just like their space-borne brethren, atmospheric satellites will spend the vast majority of their lives very far from the ground.

Trading Missiles for Wireless Routers

So, all this sounds pretty cool and interesting, but the big question is: What's the utility factor here?

Well, one of the main drawbacks of low earth-orbiting satellites is that they zip from horizon to horizon far too quickly to allow for a consistent signal for any extended period of time.

Geosynchronous satellites — ones that fly so high that even at orbital velocity, they can remain fixed above a given point on the earth — fly at an altitude of about 26,000 miles, creating problems with signal degradation and, of course, cost of launch and maintenance.

But relatively low-flying, slow-moving, locally-operating atmospheric satellites can alleviate most of those problems and do things like provide low-cost, wide-area-effective internet access to people and places that would never have had it before...

Places like Central Africa or the Siberian Tundra, for example.

Right now, a company called Titan Aerospace is developing two prototypes for just such a machine.

Called the Solara 50 and Solara 60, both machines feature giant wingspans of close to 200 feet — as large as the wingspan of a Boeing 767 jet — and the ability to cruise around in an extremely low-wind region of the atmosphere called the tropopause (5 knot average wind speed) — about 65,000 feet above the ground — for up to five years at a time.

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High Tech for Low Dollars

Using the Solara platform could cost less than $2 million, according to a 2013 Forbes report. Dustin Sanders, Titan's chief electrical engineer, said in the report, "We're trying to do a single-million-dollar-per-aircraft platform. And the operation cost is almost nothing — you're paying some dude to watch the payload and make sure the aircraft doesn't do anything stupid."

In 2013, Titan's Solara line was still in its prototype phase, but just this week, it took a major step towards realizing the dream of every tech start-up.

On Monday, April 14^th, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced that it acquired Titan Aerospace as part of its increasing focus on bringing internet service to the roughly 5 billion people who still lack it.

As this map plainly shows, the near-ubiquitous broadband availability that developed nations take for granted is still rare in most places and essentially non-existent in many.

This means there's still quite a bit of work to be done to bring online access to the remaining 80% or so of the world's population.

Google's own Project Loon was designed around a network of high-flying balloons that would offer much of the same functionality as Titan's Solara aircraft, making this initiative of the world's second-biggest tech brand a serious and committed one.

This is obviously very big news for the two-year-old aerospace firm, but it's even bigger news for what could be an entirely new subsector to the information technology industry.

“It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring Internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation,” said Google spokesman Tim Drinan in a statement yesterday. “It’s why we’re so excited to welcome Titan Aerospace to the Google family.”

After last week's market woes, Google stock has rallied more than 5%, going from below $520 to $550 per share in Tuesday and Wednesday's trading.

However, with the previously untapped opportunities this new technology will begin to open up in the coming years, it's clear there is still a lot of room for growth in information technology.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Investing in the Oldest Commodity

It was a commodity long before man started storing wealth in hard assets like gold and silver.

And unlike gold and silver, this commodity has a very practical, non-ornamental use that a man with little training and no education can exploit.

Over the course of human history, it's been the core cause of just about every major war, and to this day, it continues to appreciate.

It's the most basic, most pure form of wealth there is — a source of power and influence for anybody who owns it. It's also the most recession-proof asset known to man...

I'm talking, of course, about land.

As realtors and investors alike often say, "They're not making any new dirt."

Not Just for Value

And it's true. On top of its practical utility, land is a commodity in ever-decreasing supply. In fact, very little of the world's land remains unspoken for either by governments or by private owners.

As its rarity increases, so does its importance, which is why investment in land is starting to reach levels never seen before.

One of the strongest bull markets for land speculation and development is in full swing right now in Brazil, where fertile farmland is heating up as one of the nation's most sought-after commodities.

With the lingering drought in the U.S., farmers are looking at Brazilian land parcels to add to their portfolios.

One of the main drivers of this market is price, with land currently selling for as low as $500/hectare (just over $200/acre).

Of course, land this cheap is generally found in dryer regions, where crops like soybeans and corn cannot thrive without irrigation, but it is still suitable for extensive livestock production and forestry.

Brazil's high plains, also known as the cerrados, cover about 511 million hectares, or about one-fourth of the country. All but a small portion of this area lies south of the equator.

Putting things into context, the cerrados equal 26% of the area of the lower 48 states — an area larger than the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, excluding Florida.

Only about 148 million acres — about one-fourth of the cerrados — is currently in use.

Of that, dry land and irrigated crops cover about 25 million ha. The rest is in pasture.

Cheap, unused, fertile, and plentiful, it is the perfect recipe for a heavy influx of international investment... which is exactly what's been happening.

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Dr. Oz normally gives good health tips on his popular TV show. But in a recent episode, he actually talked about an incredible investment opportunity.

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Too Much Foreign Investment?

Currently, prevailing statistics indicate that about 1.5% of Brazil's total territory is owned by foreigner investors, but Gerson Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Association of Agrarian Reform and an adviser on farm issues to members of the Brazilian congress, believes a thorough land audit will show that number is significantly higher.

As a result of this rampant buying, new legislation is expected to be passed to make further acquisitions much harder — meaning that this opportunity to grow rapidly appreciating soy, corn, or any other staple crops at bargain-basement rates may soon be a thing of the past.

"For Brazil, it's not only an issue of national sovereignty, but it's also about the important position Brazil has in terms of agricultural potential at a time when there is a high risk of global food insecurity," Teixeira said in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.

"So the issue of foreigners owning land has to be seen within this broader context. Foreigners are welcome to invest in Brazil, it's just an issue of us knowing who is buying what land and where, and putting reasonable restrictions. Other countries do the same thing."

With Brazil's economy projected to grow just 1.8% in 2014, arable land is one of the nation's few remaining strategic assets and is therefore under closer scrutiny by the government for increased regulatory interference.

These concerns will likely only increase as we move forward and global food shortages continue to push crop prices upward, making fertile land even more crucial.

Food Shortages Driving Demand

In 2010, an estimated $14 billion was invested in agriculture by the global private sector — a figure that is expected to triple by 2015, according to a study carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

While specific figures are hard to nail down, Brazil's share of this sum is estimated to be in the billions.

"The debate about land in the hands of foreigners in happening all over the world, in all of the key agricultural frontier countries," said Mark Horn, an independent agribusiness consultant based in Brazil's federal capital of Brasilia. "Laws restricting land purchases by foreigners have been recently passed in Argentina and Uruguay, the discussions are happening in Australia and Ukraine. We went through the same thing in the US as well."

Horn said that between 2010 and 2013, he had been contacted by a number of international investment funds interested in acquiring agricultural land in four frontier markets — including Brazil — with initial investments of $25 million to $100 million.

So what might this mean to the independent investor?

Well, for now, the opportunity is still there — but it may be a short-lived one.

As with all freshly opened markets, the brief period between the initial rush and the pressure of bureaucratic regulation is a golden age — one that is likely never to return once it's gone.

In a time when land is once again perhaps the only truly reliable investment there is — for its own intrinsic sake as well as for its multi-faceted utility — the Brazilian market presents an attractive, albeit temporary, window of opportunity.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Spectacular Transformation

The electric car industry is fraught with stories of failure, going all the way back to the dawn of the automobile age.

However, these failures aren't the typical kind... They're the type of tragic failures that arrive when victory is within reach.

A very early example comes not from the 21^st or even the 20^th century but from the 19^th century, from one of the first electric cars ever — and the first car, of any kind, to break the 60 mph barrier.

Called "La Jamais Contente" (The Never Satisfied), this bullet-shaped vehicle did what few people at the time thought possible when it went 105 kilometers per hour (66 mph) in March 1899.

Several other notable electric designs, such as the Thomas Parker and the first gas-electric hybrid of 1911, the Woods Motor Vehicle, also came and went with some degree of success. But before long, electric vehicles began to fade from the mainstream and into the world of industrial novelty.

The internal combustion engine outclassed the early electric in range, endurance, and, most importantly, convenience of fueling, leading this early marvel to becoming just a minor footnote in the automotive history.

Nearly forgotten for most of the 20^th century, electrics started to make a comeback in the 1990s. Most notable was the General Motors EV1 — a car with an excellent, elegant design that was ultimately destined to die like its great-grandfather from the previous century.

Only 1,117 units of this seemingly mature product were ever produced.

The early 2000s became the decade of the hybrid, and the Toyota Prius line lead the charge with multiple models. However, the Prius was a hybrid, not a pure electrical vehicle like the EV1... It was the best of both worlds and a huge commercial success.

Technology Catches Up to Ambition

For the first truly successful example of a pure electric car — from a company committed to pure electric cars — we have to advance to 2006 and the introduction of Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Roadster.

And that's where this history of tragic failure suddenly turns around.

Today, Tesla is a $27 billion company that's revolutionizing cars, batteries, and even the business model behind getting products into the hands of customers.

In the latter case, Tesla is a rarity in the automotive business. It sells its cars directly from the manufacturer, cutting out an entire link in the supply chain and allowing for both boosted profits for the company and savings for buyers.

This practice has come under fire recently in the state of New Jersey, which outlawed direct sales years ago. As of April 1^st this year, the state has refused to renew Tesla's license in its two Garden State-based retailers.

But some analysts believe it's this very fact that adds to Tesla's disruptive nature within the automotive industry.

“If it turns out you have to cut out the dealers to make the car cost-effective, Ford and GM are either going to have to cut out their dealers (a very tough discussion) or compete with a significant cost disadvantage,” said Eugene Groysman, tech analyst at Marketocracy, in a recent interview with Forbes.

“It is the Apple of the automotive industry,” he added.

Not a small compliment by any measure.

The Modern-Day Messiah?

He's already made billions with a device that allowed the deaf to hear...

Now, he's at it again with a device that allows the blind to see.

That's why the media has dubbed him "The Modern-Day Messiah."

His previous companies were sold for billions, making investors rich.

This one will be next.

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Power supply is another matter.

Just weeks ago, Tesla announced a plan to build the world’s largest battery factory.

The plan includes the involvement of Panasonic and other partners, and it will be so big that CEO Elon Musk is calling it a "gigafactory."

His justification for investing the estimated $2–$5 billion it will cost to erect this facility is multipronged...

First of all, Tesla has struggled to secure a reliable supply of batteries, and building a large facility will allow it to build its own — a step towards vertically integrating Tesla’s electric vehicle business.

Tesla will also market these batteries to other electric vehicle companies, and it will sell batteries for storing energy from renewable sources.

This will open new revenue streams for the company, vastly broadening its product range.

The potential impact on the EV market is enormous.

The proposed plant would be able to produce as much as 30 megawatts of capacity each year, not only making it the largest battery production center in the world but also roughly doubling current global output.

This marks an amazing metamorphosis for a company that, up until now, was in the business of selling $80,000–$100,000 automobiles to a handful of well-heeled buyers, and it offers the company the chance to more thoroughly integrate its own product lines.

More Challenges. More Opportunity.

But if Tesla really wants to take on the big boys, some hurdles still stand in its way...

The biggest one is charge time.

Although a Tesla battery array can currently be charged in just half an hour — a major improvement over the multi-hour charge period of past generations of batteries — it's still at a distinct disadvantage to gas and gas-electric hybrid refueling, which takes just minutes.

Another hurdle is safety issues, namely fires, which in 2013 caused a $4 billion market cap loss to the company after two of its Model S sedans burst into flames following collisions.

The second issue, however, is already being resolved with the addition of titanium underbody shields designed to either channel large road debris away from sensitive electrical components or simply crush them into smaller pieces.

Tesla currently trades in the $225 range — hitting its 52-week high this past Wednesday as it rose over 4% for that trading day.

This puts some investors on guard, as the company seems to be growing as fast as its ambitions, but given its plans in terms of battery production, the future looks beyond bright.

Tesla's first SUV, the Model X, is set to enter production later this year, adding yet another piece to a puzzle that is looking more and more complete.

After more than a century of false starts and notable failures, it looks like the electric vehicle industry is finally reaching a state of maturity... And you'd better believe that all of Tesla's competitors — electric and gas-powered alike — are watching the company closely.

You should be watching it, too.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks

Military Tech Bull Market

There's one major news story in the political sphere that's got everyone's eyes glued to their screens these days: the unfolding debacle in the Crimean Peninsula.

Some see it as a battle of good versus evil. Others see it as democracy versus totalitarianism. Still others see it as Putin versus Obama.

I'm going to avoid putting such heavy-handed labels on this emerging conflict and look at the practical side of things instead.

But before I get started on the practical, I'd just like to say that I do not believe Russia and the U.S. are headed for war.

It is simply unthinkable to both the informed man on the street and the defense strategist alike that the world's two biggest (by far) nuclear powers would step into the ring together after nearly 70 years of posturing and bluffing.

Far more likely is a new era of proxy wars between these powers via their client states — something we referred to as the Cold War throughout most of the second half of the 20^th century.

The Cold War — as scary as the term sounds, and as terrifying as some of the cultural icons it gave rise to are (anybody remember "duck and cover"?) — actually did one thing remarkably well, and that is stimulate the arms industry on both sides of the conflict.

If that is what we now have to look forward to given Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent aggressions, my advice to you is to find ways to leverage this unfortunate state of affairs to your favor... in short, to be practical.

Predictable Trend: Military Tech During Geopolitical Instability

Military tech is always a bull market, but never more so than in times like these.

And right now, the one development on the horizon that has me most excited is a technology that may prove to be the infantry's best friend.

We all know about smartphones, smart TVs, and more recently, smart watches.

Now, it is my pleasure to introduce you to... Smart ammunition.

During the Vietnam War, the Department of Defense calculated that it took, on average, close to 10,000 rounds of ammunition fired from the rifles and machine guns of infantry to kill a single enemy combatant.

That figure was elevated by the practice of "spray and pray" marksmanship, where soldiers blindly emptied their magazines into a general area, oftentimes never actually seeing their target, in hopes of winning the lottery with a fatal shot.

It was a tactic made possible by rapid-fire infantry rifles and machine guns, and for decades, it was the prevailing battlefield philosophy of all modern armies.

As military commanders like to put it, "He who throws the most lead wins."

Quality Over Quantity

Well, all that is now set to change with the development of the smart bullet.

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories — a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) — are designing a self-guided bullet capable of homing in on targets up to a mile away.

The Albuquerque-based security firm states that the technology will change the landscape of future warfare — especially in situations calling for precision attacks on single human targets.

Here is some basic information on how this technology is radically redefining the role and the mechanism of small-arms projectiles.

First and foremost, these tiny smart munitions actually improve their accuracy the longer they stay in flight — the exact opposite of their ballistic predecessors.

The reason for this is that while ballistic (traditional) projectiles achieve peak performance the instant they leave the muzzle, smart bullets are able to auto-correct their flight paths as many as 30 times per second, thus allowing for progressive refinement of trajectory over the entire journey.

The more refinements a smart bullet makes, the better the results at the end... And those results are pretty dramatic.

Thanks to variables such as wind, gravity, and even the spin of the Earth, a .308 caliber bullet fired from a commonly issued bolt-action rifle will, on average, deviate as much as 29 feet over the course of a one-mile (5,280-foot/1,760-yard) flight.

Snipers are taught to compensate for these variables and can cut that 29-foot deviation down to single feet, but regardless, a 1-mile kill-shot in battlefield conditions remains the stuff of legends.

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Technology and Training Make for a Killer Combo

Only the best special forces snipers alive today can be expected to land such a shot — and only on the rarest of occasions. In practice, sniper teams typically set up far closer to their targets, rarely taking shots over 1,000 yards.

But even at 1,000 yards, the amount of calculation, steadiness, and sheer luck necessary to hit a human-sized target still borders on super-human.

Click to enlarge

Smart ammunition can cut that 29-foot deviation down to just 8 inches — a 97% improvement in accuracy.

Not only does this advancement allow for longer shots and thus greater safety for sniper teams, but it will also give them the ability to kill more high-value targets at a cost far lower than the alternative — drone strikes or high-altitude precision munitions drops from manned aircraft.

The main physical difference between a ballistic projectile and a smart one involves the method of stabilization.

While ballistic ammunition uses spin imparted by a gun-barrel's rifling to stabilize the bullet's flight, much in the way a quarterback spirals a football, smart bullets are stabilized by fins, much like a dart.

These fins, in turn, are constantly in motion, guided by a tiny microprocessor to make tiny modifications throughout the smart bullet's flight. (Pictured below is an actual flight path of such a bullet, traced by an LED light at the back end of the projectile.)

The longer it flies, the more corrections it has time to make, and the closer to the bull's-eye it hits.

Which leads to another major difference: velocity.

Turning Weakness into Strength

Whereas before, greater muzzle velocity meant shorter flight time, less exposure to variables like wind drift, and thus greater accuracy, smart bullets actually benefit from moving more slowly — a first in the eight-century history of firearms technology.

Standard issue high-powered rifle cartridges propel ballistic projectiles at between 3,000 and 3,200 feet per second. Smart bullets are intentionally "slowed" to just 2,400 feet per second to allow for more corrections during a given flight path.

There are, however, two problems with slower-moving projectiles: diminished range and diminished stopping power.

To this, developers of smart ammunition have a potential solution: providing power to the bullet as it flies, i.e. supplying it with onboard fuel for the preservation of velocity against aerodynamic drag.

So instead of firing a solid chunk of lead sheathed in steel or copper, soldiers of the future will be firing 3–4-inch long mini rockets.

Combine this with modern laser target-designation, and the result is a smart missile in the hands of a common foot soldier.

Lockheed Martin is not the only company currently working on perfecting this technology.

Targeting computers, which will be used in unison with the smart munitions, are currently under development by the Cubic Corporation (NYSE: CUB).

The project, assigned by the DoD's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2012, will aid snipers using traditional ballistic technology but can also be integrated with smart munitions technology in the future.

Not Just a One-Trick Pony

Smart ammunition comes in more than one form, and extended range isn't the only design parameter.

Another offering in this technological field is the XM25 round — designed for engagements limited to 2,300 feet (just over half a mile).

Still not short-range by any measure.

Designed more for brute force than precision, this 25mm explosive projectile can be programmed, in seconds, to explode over a given target when direct fire is impossible.

It measures distance by counting the number of rotations it makes (which remains a constant throughout its flight path), exploding directly above or beside a target as a kind of miniaturized guided grenade.

The XM25 has the distinction of having been used in combat, both in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and has proven to be 300% more effective than the unguided 40mm infantry rifle-launched grenades it was designed to replace.

Although funding for the XM25, which was jointly developed by Heckler & Koch and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK), was removed by the Pentagon last year, this proof-of-concept is a clear indication of where infantry small arms are going in the future.

See Through the Stigma

It's true that war profiteering is one of those things that leaves a bad taste in just about everyone's mouth, but let's remove emotion from this for just a moment.

Trends come in all shapes and sizes and, as an investor, it is your job to recognize and capitalize on them.

This trend, like most I write about, is easy to spot and impossible to stop, so the choice is yours...

You can either choose to abstain from profits for the sake principle, or you can accept that certain things are going a certain way, whether or not we want them to.

In this case, however, even your principles shouldn't stand in the way.

Smart ammunition will save the lives of our soldiers, as well as the lives of innocent bystanders who far too often get caught in the crossfire — a crossfire generally consisting of poorly aimed, rapidly fired chunks of lead that have changed little in design or function in the last 150 years.

The choice is simple. Make yours a smart one.

Yours in wealth,

Brian Hicks