Tracking Global Market Trends for Profit

Market forecasting is turning into a very lucrative business opportunity for those who are able to analyze economic trends. Having insight into where events will lead in the future has opened up a niche for specialized trend research services.
Business professionals, associations, media outlets and government officials look to trend forecasts to determine what they will do next. Many paying a monthly membership to receive a trend focused newsletter.
Is it possible to predict the future?
Apparently when it comes to the social, economic, political, environmental, and technnological arenas certain patterns evolve, making the eventual outcomes evident.
For instance in the case of the dot com bubble, stock market crash, real estate bubble, and the gold bubble analyst could see how market demand would effect the price of goods and services leading to a bust or rise in value.
What have been some of the forecasts made?
You may be familiar with the gourmet coffee, green marketing, rising gold prices, credit crisis, organic foods, home security, online classes and home building, just to name a few.
Entrepreneurs can make lots of money helping businesses prepare for the future trends. Knowing where to put your money or how to develop a product could mean the difference between staying a head of your competitor or being left behind.
Trend Tracking and the Future
Trend analysis makes it possible for groups and individuals to stay ahead of the market. Be open minded to new things because emerging trends happen rapidly within a social context.
The internet makes it easier and faster to see trends as they happen, the instant communication of social sites like twitter makes seeing a hot trend lightening fast.
The latest concerns and top issues among your local community is something to take note of because it just may be the same for others across the country.
The global economy makes the world smaller and smaller each day. For instance you can watch what a person is doing in Japan on  your laptop or smart phone making it easier for you to adabt to change quickly and seamlessly.



Top Trend Trackers
If you want to keep up with what is going on in this niche, here are some sites that have really good information on what is happening before it happens.
  • MarketWatch.com
  • TrendHunters.com
  • Trend Research Institute
  • JapanToday.com
  • TrendWatching.com
  • YouTube.com
It takes some talent to notice emerging trends before the masses do. Remember once everyone is talking about it, your pretty much to late. You want to be a trend spotter and find things that are happening underground and has not hit mainstream media yet.
Interestingly the purpose of trend research is to :
  1. Observe where the industry is
  2. Understand how the industry got there
  3. Forecast where the industry is going
The goal is to provide insight and direction to help businesses prepare for the future opportunities that will affect them professionally and personally.
Resource: Top 11 Trends of 2011
 http://www.trendsresearch.com/predictions/TopTrends2011.pdf