Regardless of which 3D printing stock you are following, the story is the same. Almost all of them are declining. It seems that there are few long-lived exceptions to this rule. What happened to this space? After all, the whole idea of 3D printing technology was all the rage a few quarters back. It seemed like a sure thing.
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Well, welcome to the world of technology stocks. The reality behind investing in hot technologies is that there is a lot of hype involved. Unfortunately, a lot of these stock prices got bid up so high due to the hype instead of actual faith in the quality of technology. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of promise behind 3D printing technology. However, it requires some market maturity and some solid applications as well as a high-level, mature market demand for this technology to truly deliver on its potential. Sadly, a lot of the stock’s appreciation can be traced solely to hype. Not surprisingly, applications have lagged behind the hype and you get declining stocks.
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Does this mean that these stocks are down for the count and that there’s truly no hope? Absolutely not. What is important is for the 3D printing industry to move beyond the hype and produce products that would stimulate demand. Once the demand firms up, this can produce another round of innovation, which would then trigger more demand. This is a very common problem with cutting-edge technology where the market isn’t fully mature yet. Moreover, the implementations aren’t fully identified and institutionalized. Regardless, there is a space and need for this technology. It would just take a while for it to truly take off.
