You know the themes... you've been there with us... We like agriculture... oil and gas... infrastructure... minerals... aerospace... all of which do better, as oil rises, and gets closer to my price target of $150 smackers a barrel...

These are the themes that will let you sleep at night, and not have nightmares about all the red that's on the tape today. I bet you would have almost broken even today, if you'd just followed the themes...

You know what they do... they let you buy at cheaper prices. Not sell low, after buying high...

Today, I'm adding a new theme to the list... one that I wish I had before I wrote my last book... because it's one that's kind of come to me, over the course since we started our fourth year on Mad Money... It's one we've talked about lately... but, today, right here... it's joining the pantheon of big themes... the ones you always have to go back to, after a bad day... and it is... "new tech"...

Now, I've given you "new tech" stocks by the dozens... You know, Eaton (ETN) and Emerson Electric (EMR)... First Solar (FSLR), Parker Hannifin (PH), Cummins (CMI)... The list goes on and on...

But, today, I want to take a step back, and truly define what makes a new technology company, so you can help me find new technology companies... not just what separates the "new tech" from the "old tech"... You know, the Cisco (CSCO)s, the Intel (INTC)s and the Take-Two (TTWO)s of the world... that only care about better gadgets, or better felon training software... that is, Grand Theft Auto... or stuff that helps your employees sell four more gizmos than the other guy...

So what defines "new tech?"... I've been focusing a lot on industrial manufacturers that invent things that solve the world's problems... But not every smokestack stock deserves the "new tech" mantle... These are the companies that are engineering solutions to the long-term, big-picture problems of the entire world... They're profitable do-gooders... but only because, as the "old tech" companies used to understand, solving problems is where the money is.
 

But which problems?...

There's a great chart, from Dr. R.E. Smalley, at Rice University, listing 10 needs of humanity over the next 50 years... These define what I am talking about, when I say "new tech"... and that "new tech" is addressing the important issues of the era... You are "new tech" if you're developing new solutions, engineering new products that help meet these ten needs... So, here's the list...

[Jim then listed his "Top 10 Needs of Humanity - for the next 50 years", as shown below]

Energy.
Creating more of it, using it more efficiently... something almost all of my picks have in common, because I've been focusing on energy almost forever... Eaton (ETN) and Emerson Electric (EMR) are two good examples.

Food.
You can think of Deere (DE) as a "new tech" stock, or Monsanto (MON)... I'm trying to rationalize how Agrium (AGU) or Mosaic (MOS) can be, because they're really just fertilizer makers... but there's tech involved there too, but I'm not going to give them that much credit. MON and DE are innovating to make it easier to make more food with greater efficiency. Count DuPont (DD) in there too. Maybe Bunge (BG) and Syngenta (SYT) in Europe.

Water.
This will be the next great shortage after oil... which is ironic that ethanol uses a gigantic amount of water... another reason not to like ethanol... And any company that's making products that improve our use of water... recycling it, improving it, or decayed domestic water infrastructure... well, they're all "new tech." I've been using Tetra Tech (TTEK). That's a great example.

Environment.
I've given you lots of these. These are companies that control and reduce carbon emissions and make cleaner energy. I want you to think about Cummins (CMI), or Owens Corning (OC)... They're all "new tech"...

Poverty.
This one should encourage you to get creative... but, yes, companies that are focusing on making the bare necessities cheaper, and more cheaply, are part of the solution. I'm working on good stocks to meet the poverty challenge. I am not confident enough to reveal them yet to you.

Terrorism/War.
That puts a lot of the defense stocks that we've liked forever... that's one of our five themes... into the "new tech" category... Today, Raytheon (RTN*), which I own for my charitable trust, was down almost a dollar... That makes it cheaper... You know General Dynamics (GD) has long been a favorite here.

Disease.
Yes, those who can make more efficient and effective medical technology... particularly diagnostics, okay... Those are companies that are the arms dealers to biotech. These all fit the "new tech" rubric... I like Thermo Fisher (TMO) for that but, again, it's a work-in-progress for me...

Education.
Now, I've yet to find a good "new tech" stock that fits... I thought I had one yesterday, and then the Justice department opened an investigation against it, so that wasn't right... Now, I've got some in mind that could pan out in the not-too-distant future though... These are companies that give people the skills they need to address all the other problems on the list...

Democracy.
I know it sounds a little silly, but there's a lot of infrastructure you need on the ground before you can get a functioning democracy... something we learned in Iraq... and any company that's improving the technology, that creates the conditions for democracy... for a functioning state that's stable enough for a democratic government... well, you put a lot of infrastructure stocks in this category, and they deserve to be called "new tech"...

Population.
Right now, there are 6.3 billion people on earth... In 2050, they will be 8-10 billion... And all the companies that are making it possible to support this population growth, and the ones that help slow it, also fall into "new tech"... I'm working on hygiene stories, just so you know, to meet that need.

This is my playbook for the next, I don't know, five years of Mad Money... That's how vital I think the needs to humanity are...

When I ran my hedge fund, there was a great guy, Bob Farrell at Merrill Lynch... He identified major themes, and then fit the recommended list to it. It was the most effective thing I've ever seen in my whole research career. I'm trying to duplicate that right here with these top 10 needs of humanity.

These are the 10 big needs. Any company that's innovating, that's applying technology to help meet these needs, belongs to the "new tech" family, and will be featured right here...

Vital, unmet needs do not include internet security; cooler, hotter cell phones with different colors; smaller cameras; bigger TV screens... Yet that's the standard definition when I hear "tech"... What everyone else says is tech, I say is "old tech"...

We will visit all of these unmet needs, and pick stocks that meet them, over and over and over again... Why?... Because, when the market is down horribly, like it was today, you need themes to backstop you... to let you say, you know what... I don't mind buying more of it. These themes aren't going away. They are 50-year themes... And (these themes) allow you to buy more, rather than to cut and run...

The Bottom Line!:      Now you know what defines "new tech"... when I come in here and say Emerson Electric (EMR) is a "new tech" story... or Eaton Corp. (ETN) is a "new tech" story... The 10 unmet needs of humanity... And now tech is part of the pantheon of ag, oil, minerals, infrastructure, aerospace, and defense... the groups of stocks that you buy for less, on a down day, because you believe they've got a great theme, a powerful theme... These stocks, when they go down, are actually cheaper, and the themes will take them higher eventually...