David Ross

Travelin' Man

“I’m a travelin’ man

I’ve made a lot of stops all over the world”

Travelin’ Man, Ricky Nelson

 

September has been a month of travel for the Echiquier Global team. Our crack analyst, Rolando Grandi, has spent most of the month in Asia. With stops in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Bangkok, Taipei, and Hsinchu (Taiwan), Rolando has visited over 30 companies in search of potential investments for us in innovation leaders.

In addition to Rolando’s expeditions, earlier in the month I once again attended a “Renaissance Weekend” near Silicon Valley. These invitation-only weekends are designed to be festivals of ideas led by the attendees, all of whom qualify as “Preeminent Authorities, Thought-Leaders, and Trend-Setters.”  I know you are thinking “how did you ever get invited to attend?” Obviously they mistook me for a different David Ross, probably the World Series baseball hero who has gone on to further fame on the hit TV show “Dancing with the Stars.”

The rules of attending prevent me from saying who the attendees were, but it was a weekend full of energy and optimism with innovation on top of mind. There were discussions led by leading authorities on topics such as Autonomous Vehicles, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies, Cancer Research, China’s Future, Big Data, Current Issues in Astrophysics, Animal Intelligence, The New Economy, Disruption, Digital Literacy, as well as many other topics. Beyond merely learning from other experts, I moderated a panel of economists on a discussion of “Trumponomics” and participated on a panel on “Insights from Around the Globe.”

What I came away with from the weekend was an appreciation of how close we are to the edge of a new era of economic disruption fueled by innovation, like blockchain technologies replacing traditional middle office functions and autonomous driving. Some of the innovations coming in disease recognition and treatment have the ability to truly be life-changing.

As I mentioned back in May in the blog “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” times of great disruption are typically great times to be invested for the long haul. Echiquier Global’s travels this month lead us to believe this is still an equity market that rewards optimism.

Next week, you will find me in Washington DC attending the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Hopefully a week with global economic policy makers will confirm this optimism!