The First Steps in New Tech Always Seem a Little Silly

Editor's note: Even today's most commonplace technology was once considered far-fetched. And according to Marc Chaikin – founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics – the revolutionary technology of tomorrow might look like a joke at first. In this issue, adapted from the March 28 edition of the Chaikin PowerFeed e-letter, Marc details how one tech pioneer changed the world of e-commerce – and explains why investors shouldn't ignore similar opportunities today, no matter what the naysayers say.

Three hundred bits per second...

That's about 186 times slower than the early dial-up Internet connections of the 1990s.

At 300 bits per second, it would take around 18 minutes to load Google's basic homepage to a computer screen. And attaching a PDF file to an e-mail could take a couple of hours.

But thanks to the development of high-speed Internet and fiber-optic cables, today's Internet experience is very different.

We can access data at lightning speeds. That means loading information online in a matter of milliseconds.

Heck, we can even stream movies and TV shows on our own cellphones while riding in the car.

And thanks to fast and reliable Internet access, more than 2.7 billion people across the globe shop online today.

But on March 4, 1983, one of the world's first e-commerce markets was made possible by 300 bits per second.

And it happened by accident.

A Pioneer in Electronic Commerce

You see, two years earlier, Alex Randall had purchased an IBM PC. It had 16 kilobytes of memory and two floppy-disk drives.

Randall had a PhD in systems theory. So he spent a lot of time on his computer.

Soon, his wife complained that she hardly saw his face anymore. And she wanted a computer, too.

Back then, everyone wanted a PC. But for the average family, a new IBM computer was expensive. At the time, it cost $1,565 (about $5,400 in today's dollars).

When Randall and his wife looked at the classified ads to check out used computers, they were shocked. As Randall later put it...

The prices were all over the place, and the descriptions didn't make any sense.

This gave them an idea for a business that would help people who owned computers sell the devices to other folks.

So Randall and his wife started the Boston Computer Exchange out of a small office.

In the beginning, the business was anything but computerized. It used a card and pencil system that kept a record of folks who wanted to sell a computer or buy a used one.

Randall and his team would go through each of the cards and match buyers with sellers. Then they would call people to make the sale.

But it was only after they computerized their records by entering all the information into a database that business took off...

With the help of a 300-bits-per-second modem, Randall struck a deal to upload his database to an electronic bulletin board for computer buyers and sellers to see.

The next day, the business got a call from someone in Santiago, Chile. The caller had seen the bulletin board and wanted to buy one of the computers listed in the database.

Keep in mind that the Boston Computer Exchange was a bold idea back then...

At the time, most businesses were content selling things the old-fashioned way – directly through salespeople and in physical stores. So Randall's Boston Computer Exchange business was a pioneer in electronic commerce.

Imagine what a novelty it must have been for Randall to consider packing up a computer and mailing it to Chile – all thanks to his electronic bulletin board.

It probably sounded like a joke to his friends.

Despite that, it was the beginning of a revolutionary change...

Now, e-commerce is just another part of our everyday life. We buy everything from smartphones and computers to furniture and plane tickets online... without even thinking about it.

Keep that "novelty" concept in mind. Today, we're seeing a lot of new tech emerge around AI and quantum computing.

And many of the naysayers might sound incredibly reasonable. After all, they say things like, "This is just a novelty. And no one really knows what to do with this stuff."

But we've seen firsthand the rapid changes that can take place... and the incredible investment opportunities they create along the way.

Good investing,

Marc Chaikin

Editor's note: Panic has struck Wall Street in a major way. But according to Marc, the recent market turbulence has created a massive buying opportunity in one little-known stock. He says it could end up being the biggest winner of his 59-year career in finance – but you need to buy in before a May 22 catalyst that could send its shares ripping higher. Click here to learn the details.