Alexander Elder : MMMM

Mind - know yourself
Method - how do you find trades - do you watch Cramer, use a screener?
Money - how do you size positions, how do you exit trades?
Management - "Show me a trader with good records and I'll show you a good trader."

Man! Dr. Alex Elder is such a PITHY GENIUS. I love hearing this guy speak. So what if he has an accent? It doesn't cost a cent.

Anyway, M4 pretty much tells me I suck. More than 10 years ago, I read Bill O'Neil who said to keep records - keep charts on which you mark where you got in and where you got out so you can learn from your mistakes. Elder adds "and your successes." No excuse there for me - I credit myself with doing my homework. I guess I suck after all.

Like someone answered a dude on Quora who asked about why he didn't get a job after x interviews - the first thing to realize is - it's you... That's a hard truth. What thing about yourself can you enhance today to make yourself more interesting and competitive?

Virtuix Wants Your Money. So What's New?

Watching the TRAVR video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvNk10p5i8s I feel game design SO COOL - the graphics are so slick - I wonder which engine they used - Unity maybe? What geniuses!

So, I think there really is something in this. It may be 10 years before they hit a home run in terms of a mass shipment at decent volume, but I think I want one of these just so I start working out more - in any kind of weather - give me an adventure game where I go around doing stuff!

Offering - $2.33 per share (of preferred stock) for a total intended fund of $15m. What if they're oversubscribed? Existing stock : 5.5m common, 7.3m preferred - good to know :)

The company's operating expenses consist of rent, payroll, professional services, selling expenses, and research and development. Operating expenses for Fiscal 2015 totaled $3,449,829, a 113% increase from $1,619,573 for Fiscal 2014. The primary components of the increase from 2014 to Fiscal 2015 were:

• 137% increase in general and administrative expenses covering personnel costs, rent, insurance, professional and legal services, and expenses incurred other than for sales activities. The principal driver of this increase was the increase in personnel of the company from approximately 10 persons to 30; and 
• 105% increase in research and development expenses due do the availability of funds to engage in necessary research and development of the core product following capital raising efforts.

Age	3 years (2013)
Seed Money	Kickstarter $150k goal	Overshot by about 1 mil in < 4 hours from posting
CEO	Jan Goetgeluk	Belgian (Ghent, Mech Engg, MBA, investment banking background)
Other investment	$8 mil	Mark Cuban, 2020 Ventures
Precedents	Oculus	Also raised seed money on KS and later got picked up by FB for $1b!
Competition	Tuncay Cakmak	Cyberith Virtualizer (Austria) ($1.8m funding to date)
My prediction	CV will eliminate the sensors to reduce cost	Good enough computer vision can look at the player and say what he's doing - which can simplify things a lot - so a new entrant might capture the "market" quickly if one develops
My embellishments	What I'd add	A way to sit - and take a rest - if you want to keep playing but have to step out of the chamber to just sit for a few minutes, that's lame - this should be an easy one to solve - maybe a wearable chair?
Sample concern	Duncan Murray (Feb 29)	Dear Virtuix - this is getting a little silly now. Are we going to ever get our Omnis? In 4 months time, it'll be 3 years since you achieved your funding goal, but still no product. Also, do you really think that you'll generate $25M in funding for a company which hasn't shipped a product for 3 years? Less trade shows, less TRAVR, more production would be fantastic - I keep getting updates about how the Omni will he here, or how your game/experience (which nobody backed) is coming along and to be honest - I'm not interested. I have many other games and my own projects I want to experience with the Omni, so can we please just get actual units shipped? 3 years is getting really too much.
Sample response		Hey Duncan, the good news is that they have started shipping. I have mine (it's awesome BTW, I hope you get yours soon), and a number of other Pathfinders have theirs. It's a small batch for user testing, but as soon as they've learned everything they can from that they'll work on getting the rest out. The trade shows have been important for a variety of reasons, and they have a separate game development team for TRAVR so that's not holding anything back either. Although it wasn't part of the main campaign, it was a stretch goal, so some of us did pledge for TRAVR, and I still think it's a great idea for the Omni to come with a game that shows everyone how cool decoupled movement is. Here's a video of me trying to explain why de-coupled is such a great feature:
Sample concern	Avi Muchnick	Hi Virtuix, I would like a refund. I would not have ever backed this project if I knew that it would be 3 years late and honestly, I feel duped and just don't want to support this project any longer, even if some have now started shipping. Can you please let me know how to get a refund? I would appreciate it, thank you.
Sample response	Creator @ Virtuix	Hi Avi, We're sorry to hear you would like to cancel your pledge. We have sent you a message regarding this. Best regards, The Virtuix Team
Sample concern	Peter Lawn	When, please when. A straight answer is all I ask. Its not that a complicated product compared to a huge list I could give that have been produced and shipped in less than half the time. When, in a quarterly year basis can we expect .?? Please, A little respect.. Thanks
Sample response	Jan	Hi Peter, Scott: I understand your frustration with not knowing the exact production and delivery schedule, and so are we. We are currently working on this schedule with our manufacturing partners and will communicate when available. Production of the Omni is not a picnic, as our product includes more than 140 different components and materials (shoes, fabric, harness, various metals, plastics, electronics, etc.). Our Pathfinder program is a success, so rest assured that you will receive a high quality product. Thank you for your continued patience and support. Best regards, Jan
Sample compliment	Austin Ramsdale (could be fake - no one with this name shows up on LI)	Hi all - As a part of the Pathfinder program, I just received mine yesterday! I can vouch for the quality and heft of this product! It's absolutely amazing, and they have really thought through everything. You can tell, when putting it together, how well it's been engineered to not only fit together easily, but provide a very stable platform to move on (even on a second floor, there is no give or wobble in the base). The software is improving, and probably one of the major things getting improvements through the Pathfinder program - trust me, you want this thing to be really ironed out before shipping. All in all, very happy with my Omni, and don't fret - when it arrives, you will appreciate how much Jan and the team has gone through to get it to you.

What I want to know : who are the geniuses who make these super graphics. What tools do they use? How exactly do you make an image that looks like this :

Valeant and S&P's Jeffrey Loo : What a Surprise!

Jeff's been lowering his price target along with the market - who could have seen that one coming.

Best part - he still screams BUY! Kind of like Jim Cramer going on talk shows and telling people to buy Bear Stearns.

Ray Dalio's Treasure Trove

Teenagers should be horse-whipped and made to read these - and Buffet's letters of course :

http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf

And also :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0

Understanding the economy :

Productivity growth; Short-term debt cycle; Long-term debt cycle.

Super man!

1. Don't allow debt to rise faster than income.
2. Don't allow income to rise faster than productivity - this one can be used - you should always come across as being capable of contributing more than they're going to pay you :)
3. Do all you can to boost productivity - yes this one also you can use personally - you want to be able to get your work done as fast as you can - and if you run out of work, they have to pay you more because you're contributing more.

I know, I'm doomed to be a working class man :)

What Would Genrich Do?

Here's a contradiction Mr. Altschuler :

You want your pixel to be as sensitive as possible - when it gets electrons, you want it to generate as big of a voltage as possible so you overpower the noise of the readout circuitry as much as possible.

Problem : the more signal voltage you get per electron, the faster you're using up the available range that that node provides the voltage due to headroom limitations. So, you're losing dynamic range.

What's a brother to do? No wonder TI has no use for Joyce anymore.