what is secular 
in finance secular is a descriptive word used to refer to market activities that occur over the long term secular can also point to specific stocks or stock sectors unaffected by short term trends secular trends are not seasonal or cyclical instead they remain consistent over time understanding secularinvestors and analysts expect secular trends and secular stocks to remain moving in the same direction over the long term maintaining a static trajectory regardless of current economic conditions when applying the term to the stock market a secular market is the market s overarching trend or direction for a long period of time further secular trends may be upward or downward in direction it is important for investors to identify secular trends in markets not just short term trends to develop a long term investment strategy examples of secular trends include an aging population which tends to have different spending and savings habits than a younger population the expansion of a particular technology such as the internet the clean energy movement and the growth in impact investing examples of secularwithin the stock market experts consider technology companies such as netflix and google parent alphabet secular because short term economic trends have a minimal lasting impact on their long term performance david kostin of goldman sachs as reported by cnbc in march of 2018 came up with a list of the best secular growth stocks prime for investment 1 the short list includes internet companies amazon and google s alphabet as well as domino s pizza and summit materials goldman chose these companies because they grew sales by over 10 over the three previous years and have robust and forward looking potential other frequently cited examples include companies like apple and amazon whose businesses do not rely heavily on cyclical factors deere tesla and devon energy are also considered secular stocks 2 solar stocks may also be considered secular in that demand will remain consistent in times of economic hardship 