Does this sound familiar? You are tired because of the current market environment. Most of your holdings are in red, or neutral at best, since market volatility exploded last summer.

You have tried investment services like paid e-newsletters from gurus worldwide, took consultations, read books … but your profitability has not improved, on the contrary.

If this sounds familiar, we can tell you that you are not alone. Many investors nowadays are truly suffering, and they are telling us. There are two trends which make investor’s life quite hard. On the one hand, expectations are set for fast gains (much faster than ever before). On the other hand, central banks have lit a fire below every market, driven by extreme monetary policies, distorting normal market behavior, and causing wild swings in basically every market.

Are there any investment opportunities left in 2016?

Given today’s market environment and expectations for fast / easy gains, the question really is whether there are investment opportunities left in 2016 (and beyond). The answer to that question is clearly “yes”, but one has to adapt its investment strategy. During volatile times, and especially sideways trading markets, similar to the ones we have seen since last summer, investors need to change their investment strategy. Positions should not necessarily be held for a long time, so trading in and out of markets is often recommended. Patience is required, because volatility leads to extremely interesting prices of assets and stocks.

Case in point: 3D Printing

The 3D Printing sector rose tenfold between 2012 and 2014, catching the attention of the masses. In 2014, the sector got into a euphoria phase. At that time, everyone thought that the world had changed because of 3D Printing. Nothing is further from the truth, though, as that type of sentiment typically coincides wtih a peak, right before the sector comes down, which is what happened in 2015.