This year has served as a reminder to the investment community that stocks can go down just as easily as they can rise. Since each of the major U.S. stock indexes hit their respective all-time highs between mid-November 2021 and the first week of January 2022, they've fallen into a bear market with peak declines ranging from 22% to 38%.
The good news is that bear markets represent the perfect buying opportunity for long-term investors. Best of all, with most online brokerages doing away with commission fees and minimum deposit requirements, any amount of money -- even $1,000 -- can be the ideal amount to begin building wealth on Wall Street.
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With just over three weeks to go before we steam ahead into 2023, a number of fast-growing trends stand out as no-brainer investment opportunities. What follows are five unstoppable trends to invest $1,000 in for 2023.
1. Financial technology (fintech)
The first surefire opportunity for investors can be found in the financial technology (fintech) space. Even amid a challenging economic environment, digital payments adoption is on the rise, and the potential for financial solutions to disrupt the payment and lending space is intriguing.
A relatively safe way to play fintech growth would be to buy shares of PayPal Holdings (PYPL 1.96%). PayPal has sustained low double-digit total payment-volume growth, excluding currency movements, throughout 2022. More importantly, PayPal's active accounts completed an average of 50.1 transactions over the trailing-12-month period as of Sept. 30, 2022. That's a 25% increase from where things finished at the end of 2020. PayPal stock is cheaper now than it's arguably ever been.
For investors with a higher tolerance for risk, cloud-based lending platform Upstart Holdings (UPST 3.90%) could make for a solid investment with $1,000. Rather than using credit scores to vet loan applications, Upstart is relying on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning to automate the process. This saves time and money for Upstart's nearly seven dozen bank and credit union partners.
Additionally, Upstart's approved applications have broadened the prospective lender pool for financial institutions without increasing their credit-risk profile.
2. Energy infrastructure
While higher energy-commodity prices might encourage investors to buy drilling and exploration companies, the safest bet would be to focus on anything having to do with energy infrastructure in 2023.
Though it's a name I've already beaten the drum for multiple times this week, midstream operator Enterprise Products Partners (EPD -0.31%) makes for a genius buy. Midstream oil and gas providers lean on long-term, fixed-fee contracts that remove the effects of inflation and spot-price volatility from the equation. What's left for Enterprise Products Partners is highly predictable cash flow.
Also working in favor of energy infrastructure providers is the globally broken energy supply chain. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, coupled with years of underinvestment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it highly likely that energy commodity prices remain elevated.
Another energy infrastructure name to consider is engineering and construction company Fluor (FLR 2.28%). As long as the energy supply chain is challenged, there should be heightened demand for renewable energy projects, which are Fluor's specialty. Perhaps it's no surprise that Fluor tallied $9.7 billion in new project awards during the third quarter, which represents its second-largest new awards amount for a quarter in the company's more than 110-year history.
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3. Advertising technology (adtech)
A third unstoppable trend to invest $1,000 in for 2023 is advertising technology, which is more commonly known as adtech. Even though ad spend could be challenged in the first half of 2023, if not a bit beyond, it's crystal clear that advertising dollars have been steadily shifting from print and billboards to video, mobile, connected TV (CTV), and over-the-top channels.
One of the smartest ways to play this shift is with cloud-based programmatic adtech stock PubMatic (PUBM 3.02%). PubMatic is a sell-side provider, which simply means it helps publishers sell their digital display space. Aside from being focused on CTV, which is among the fastest-growing digital ad channels, PubMatic benefits from having designed and developed its cloud-based infrastructure. Not having to rely on a third party should lead to superior operating margins as revenue scales.
On the other side of the aisle is The Trade Desk (TTD 4.15%), which is a demand-side provider that helps advertisers create digital ad campaigns. Similar to PubMatic, The Trade Desk is seeing its biggest opportunity in CTV. Since CTV isn't dominated by a single entity, such as Alphabet with internet search, programmatic ad pricing tends to be highly competitive and enticing.
4. Precious metal miners
Another unstoppable trend to invest $1,000 into for 2023 is precious-metal mining -- specifically, gold and silver. The spot price for precious metals should benefit from near-term economic uncertainty and historically high inflation. Additionally, precious-metal mining stocks usually perform their best during the early stages of a bull market. As a reminder, the stock market usually bottoms out before the U.S. economy does.
My largest portfolio holding, SSR Mining (SSRM 2.98%), is one such company that can thrive in 2023. Whereas most gold-mining stocks are still (pardon the pun) digging themselves out of a large net-debt position from the early-to-mid-2010s, SSR Mining is sitting on close to $487 million net cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. With SSR generating boatloads in free cash flow, it's been able to increase its dividend and enact a share-buyback program.
For investors with an appetite for silver, First Majestic Silver (AG 4.12%) could be poised for a bounce-back year. Silver is a metal with growing utility in electric vehicles and solar panels. There's also a strong likelihood of silver outperforming gold in the near term, given that the gold-to-silver ratio is above its historic norm. When coupled with improved operating efficiency at the flagship San Dimas mine and the continued ramp-up of the Jerritt Canyon gold mine, First Majestic could have a banner year.
5. Cybersecurity
The fifth unstoppable trend to invest $1,000 into for 2023 is cybersecurity. Over the past two decades, cybersecurity has evolved into a basic necessity service. No matter how poorly the U.S. economy or stock market performs, hackers will always try to steal sensitive customer and enterprise data. This means consistent demand for cybersecurity solutions.
If there's a no-brainer buy within the cybersecurity space, it has to be CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD 3.63%). CrowdStrike's Falcon security platform relies on AI and oversees around 1 trillion daily events. More importantly, CrowdStrike has successfully encouraged existing clients to spend a whole lot more. In less than six years, the percentage of subscribers with five or more cloud-module subscriptions has grown from the single digits to 60%.
For investors with an appetite for a bit more risk, identity-verification solutions provider Okta (OKTA 1.21%) has a chance to shine in 2023 after a miserable 2022. Okta's security platform is also cloud-based and reliant on machine-learning to grow smarter and more effective at identifying potential threats over time. Though acquisition-related expenses have weighed on the company this year, these one-time expenses should be gone next year and allow for cleaner top-and-bottom-line comparisons.
