The Science and Skill of Trendspotting

In the interview below, Ann Mack, director of trendspotting at JWT, sits down with Brendan Byrnes to discuss the science and skill behind identifying big trends in their early stages. This sort of vision is absolutely vital for long-term investors, and is a cornerstone of our own resident superinvestor David Gardner's system for crushing markets. He seeks out game-changing companies before Wall Street is keen to their potential and helps investors profit as the companies soar. I invite you to learn more about how David discovers his winners today with a personal tour of his flagship service: Supernova; just click here now for instant access.

Brendan Byrnes: Hey, Fools, I'm Brendan Byrnes and I'm joined today by Ann Mack, the director of trendspotting at JWT. First of all, thank you so much for your time today.

Ann Mack: Thanks for having me.

Brendan: Let's just get right into it. This has to be a tough job. You're trying to identify trends basically a year in advance, or for the full next year. What is your methodology, and how do you go about trying to figure out what trends to look for?

Ann: Yes, it is a difficult job because we try to make sense of all this hyper-abundant information that's out there, connect seemingly disconnected dots.

We have a very robust methodology to do that. We conduct quantitative surveys in the U.S. and the U.K., and sometimes around the world. We reach out to our network of JWT planners and researchers, and they help to keep us honest. They tell us whether a trend is translating in their market, and if so, how.

Then we interview experts across a variety of different industries, from retail, to technology, to academia, to media, to health and wellness, and so on.

The article The Science and Skill of Trendspotting originally appeared on Fool.com.

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