Before we get into today’s Market Insights, I wanted to share some exciting news with you.
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to build NXT Wave Research and this daily publication from the ground up. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’m grateful you’ve chosen to be part of it. Every morning I’ve tried to deliver timely market commentary, actionable investment ideas, and long-term research focused on the innovations that I believe will shape the next decade.
Along the way, I also learned something important.
Managing a growing research business and producing a high-quality daily publication isn’t just about writing. It’s researching, reading hundreds of reports, tracking breaking news, creating charts, handling operations, and everything else that goes into publishing running a research and publishing business.
While I’ve enjoyed building it, I realized that if I want to continue delivering the best possible research for years to come, I need to spend even more of my time doing what I do best - finding tomorrow’s biggest investment opportunities.
There are a lot of reasons I’m excited about this move.
First, Monument Traders Alliance has built one of the most respected independent financial publishing businesses in the industry. Their team has decades of experience helping individual investors navigate the markets, and they understand that successful investing isn’t about chasing headlines - it’s about identifying opportunities before they become obvious.
Just as important, our investment philosophies are a perfect fit. We both believe in educating investors, focusing on long-term trends instead of short-term noise, and helping everyday people build wealth through smart investing. From my very first conversations with the team, it was clear we shared the same vision.
Joining MTA also gives me access to an outstanding group of editors, researchers, analysts, and technology professionals. Instead of wearing every hat myself, I’ll be able to devote far more of my time to what I enjoy most - researching emerging technologies, talking with company management teams, traveling to industry conferences, and uncovering the next generation of market-leading companies.
I genuinely believe this partnership makes Market Insights stronger, and I think you’ll see the difference in the quality and depth of the research we deliver.
You’ll continue receiving your daily market update on every market day, but now it will be called The First Move with Matt McCall.
The update will include the same investment philosophy, the same long-term focus, and the same goal of helping you profit from the biggest innovations transforming our world. If anything, I believe the quality of the research will improve because I’ll have more time to dig deeper into the trends and companies that deserve our attention.
I’m incredibly excited about this next chapter and what it means for all of us. I truly believe the coming years will produce some of the greatest investment opportunities of our lifetimes, and I can’t wait to continue sharing that journey with you.
As always, thank you for reading, and thank you for your continued support.
Matt McCall
If you only followed the headlines a few years ago, you would have assumed we would all be riding in self-driving cars by now.
Nearly every major automaker had an ambitious timeline. Technology companies were pouring billions of dollars into autonomous driving research. Analysts were predicting that robotaxis would soon replace traditional ride-sharing services, and some even suggested that personal car ownership would eventually become a thing of the past.
I will admit that I believed the world of self-driving vehicles would have been at a place today where it was the norm to buy a new car without a steering wheel. As you know, it didn’t happen that quickly.
Like so many emerging technologies, expectations got ahead of reality. Building a vehicle that can safely navigate millions of different road conditions, weather events, pedestrians, construction zones, and unpredictable human drivers proved to be far more difficult than many expected.
As deadlines slipped and commercialization took longer, investor enthusiasm faded. Autonomous driving became another example of a technology that many people quietly placed in the “overhyped” category.
That is exactly why I think it deserves another look today.
One of the biggest investing mistakes I see is assuming that because a stock or an entire sector has stopped generating headlines, the underlying innovation has stopped progressing. History shows the opposite is usually true. Once the excitement fades, engineers go back to work, companies continue investing, and the technology often improves dramatically while few investors are paying attention.
Autonomous transportation is following that same script.
The clearest example is Waymo. Just a few years ago, most people viewed Google’s autonomous driving division as an expensive science experiment. Today, Waymo is providing over 500,000 fully autonomous rides every week across multiple U.S. cities, with expansion continuing into additional markets.
For residents in cities where the service operates, climbing into a vehicle with no driver behind the wheel has become surprisingly ordinary.
Tesla continues to pursue a different approach. Rather than relying on expensive lidar sensors, the company has built its Full Self-Driving platform primarily around cameras, artificial intelligence, and neural networks. Whether Tesla ultimately wins that race remains to be seen, but there is little question that the company has accelerated investment across the entire industry.
Every major automaker is now spending heavily on advanced driver assistance systems, AI-powered driving software, or autonomous vehicle platforms because they recognize where transportation is heading.
The opportunity extends far beyond passenger cars. In fact, some of the most attractive long-term opportunities may exist in industries where autonomy is already delivering measurable economic benefits.
Autonomous trucks are beginning to move freight along major highway corridors, helping address driver shortages while reducing transportation costs.
Mining companies have deployed fleets of autonomous haul trucks that operate around the clock in some of the world’s largest mines.
Modern farms increasingly rely on autonomous tractors and precision agriculture systems that maximize productivity while reducing labor requirements.
Warehouses are becoming more automated every year as fleets of mobile robots move inventory with minimal human intervention.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating all of these trends. Better computer vision, more powerful processors, improved sensors, and increasingly sophisticated machine learning models allow autonomous systems to make faster and more accurate decisions than ever before.
Then there is an entirely different segment of transportation that is only beginning to capture investors’ attention: electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, better known as eVTOLs.
Several companies have now completed thousands of successful test flights, major regulators continue moving toward commercial certification, and airlines, logistics providers, and defense contractors have committed billions of dollars through partnerships and aircraft orders.
While widespread adoption will still take time, I believe urban air mobility has the potential to become another meaningful long-term growth market over the next decade.
The important point is that autonomous transportation is no longer just a futuristic concept. It is becoming an increasingly practical business, one application at a time.
The rollout won’t happen overnight, and it won’t occur everywhere simultaneously. Just as the internet took years to move from universities into homes and smartphones took nearly a decade to become the norm, autonomous transportation will likely spread gradually before it suddenly feels commonplace.
For investors, that distinction matters. The greatest fortunes are rarely made after a technology becomes obvious. They’re made while the market is still debating whether the opportunity is real.
An Autonomous Transportation Watchlist
If I were building a watchlist around this trend today, I would focus less on traditional automakers and more on the companies supplying the technology that makes autonomy possible.
NVIDIA (NVDA) – The clear leader in AI computing platforms used to train and power autonomous vehicles, robotics, and simulation.
Alphabet (GOOGL) – Through Waymo, Alphabet has established itself as the early leader in commercial robotaxi operations.
Tesla (TSLA) – Continues investing aggressively in Full Self-Driving software, AI infrastructure, and autonomous mobility.
Mobileye Global (MBLY) – Supplies advanced driver assistance and autonomous driving technology to dozens of global automakers.
Aurora Innovation (AUR) – Focused on autonomous trucking, which could become one of the largest commercial opportunities in the transportation industry.
Joby Aviation (JOBY) – One of the leaders in the emerging eVTOL industry with strong airline partnerships and meaningful certification progress.
Archer Aviation (ACHR) – Another leading eVTOL developer working toward commercial air taxi services and defense applications.
Kodiak Robotics (KDK) – A newer public company focused on autonomous trucking, with partnerships spanning freight, energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
As I look back over this week’s series, one common theme stands out. Electric vehicles, gene editing, the metaverse, blockchain, and autonomous transportation all followed remarkably similar paths. Investors became convinced each technology would change the world, stock prices soared, expectations became unrealistic, and disappointment inevitably followed. Many people concluded that because the stocks had collapsed, the technologies themselves had failed.
History suggests otherwise.
Innovation rarely moves in a straight line.
Progress is usually slower than investors hope during the early years, but once the underlying technology reaches an inflection point, adoption can accelerate much faster than anyone expects. That is why I spend far more time studying where the technology is headed than worrying about where investor sentiment happens to be today.
Some of the biggest winners over the next decade will likely come from technologies that most investors have already written off. In my experience, that’s often where some of the best opportunities begin.
Here’s to the future,
Matt McCall
Editor, Market Insights
