Life at Frontier Minus One

Sanity prevails…

…at frontier minus one.

Rat race is within the underlying’s…

control.

Virtual / quasi / substantial / semi debt-free-ness…

exists.

Free cash-flow generation on the balance sheet is…

…common.

At frontier minus one, the narrative is …

…under control…

…as proven by self-determination of speed of change…

…and by exhibition of substantial growth.

Not at breakneck speeds.

Not by borrowing to the hilt.

Not by greedy behaviour.

Not by indigestible trajectory.

Not by a reckless ‘not giving a damn too bad if you’re not so fast’ attitude.

Life at frontier minus one…

…is somewhat balanced, with a flow.

Innovation at frontier minus one is achieved much faster

…than at frontier minus two, but much slower than at…

…frontier zero zero.

No tech company that wishes to thrive well into the future is currently functioning at…

…frontier minus two.

Either the transition to minus one has been made, or, it’s in the process.

Why not go for the jugular? Straight to zero zero.

Everyone has their role in this puzzle.

Imagine an older civilization going into battle.

There was a front line, paving the way, at immense cost.

There was a reserve support line, with artillery, first-aid, communication, and what have you.

There was a third line with supply, reinforcements, semi-trainees doing other stuff normally, etc.

There was aerial support, naval support, intelligence, research and analysis staff etc.

All combined to create an ensemble of actions.

Cut to now.

Warfare has changed.

Immense cost is still there, but immense cost to the front line, as in cost of life, has been reduced greatly, speak drone and missile warfare, supported by AI backed intelligence and analysis.

Point is, innovation, a different way of thinking, disruption and all their cousins will find a way to make things affordable, implementable.

That’s the way civilizations move forward.

Not for you or me to change. It’s the way of the world.

And that is what frontier minus one banks upon.

Meaning, to keep functioning at sustainable levels, slowly, painstakingly, in the process, simultaneously, finding a way, a connect, to frontier zero zero.

The connect can be of co-work. Amicable. Win-Win. You earn, we earn.

At frontier minus one, the world view is not to annihilate, but to…

…accommodate.

To win…

…together…

…in…

symbiosis.

Symbiosis

Imagine…

…the most value you can imagine.

That’s what this word is worth.

Especially now.

What’s the truth?

Existential question.

First we had everyone and their aunties proclaim the death of core Tech companies.

Hmmm.

Core Tech companies, and their chief protagonists, thought otherwise.

Number of believers kept waning though.

Until recently.

Something started to reverse in belief systems.

AI was behaving fantastically utilitarian with a human holding the reins.

Meaning, there needed to be a human there, for practical purposes.

Frontier AI deployed engineers to be the human face. Or so one was told.

Came the trust issue.

Do we double up on our trust in this no track record magician who just showed up out of nowhere?

Do we entrust privileged client data to the unknown?

Do we strip ourselves naked, TWICE?

NO.

Everyone and their uncles have answered with an emphatic NO.

Who is the human handler – the go-between – the trusted face – the rein holder?

Someone with a track record.

Proven.

Tried, and…

trusted.

Self-propelling.

With no liabilities. Spell ZERO DEBT.

With copious FREE CASH FLOW to INNOVATE FREELY…

…to navigate the reins successfully and as per the requirements of an enterprise.

Who is this entity?

None other than…

…our own very well known…

CORE TECH.

Leaner.

Hungry to prove its point.

To have its raison d’être acknowledged, and paid for.

To earn and compound steadily.

Forget about dying. Let’s talk about long term thriving.

Then, we had the captains of frontier AI admitting, that yes, ‘we do need core tech handholding to be implemented successfully’.

Gone was the initial hubris, that ‘we had come to wipe out old thought patterns, and all old systems’.

Reality had dawned, and these captains at least had the decency to admit it.

Actually, they had realized that their existence now depended upon how much their infrastructure would seep through. And…

…that no one was trusting them enough to hand over the job of seeping through to them, but much rather, to trusted old compatriots, to Core Tech.

So they came forward to shake hands.

Good.

Symbiosis.

We want to move forward on the back of this symbiosis.

There will be gigantic and fast development on the back of this symbiosis.

We are looking at space travel, space colonization, disease control, climate change, cheap solar, cheap desalination, perhaps even alien integration and partnership – unimaginable perhaps a few months ago, but possibly conceivable on the back of this symbiosis.

There’s new talk which has recently emerged, from the other extreme, and needs to be discarded, like its mirror image on the opposite side of the bell curve. This is the talk of frontier AI dying out because of becoming unaffordable.

Well, in whatever shape it exists currently, frontier AI does have tremendous capacity to solve problems.

Let it do just that on the back of this symbiosis, and earnings will start to flow.

Core Tech won’t let it wither, frontier AI has now become their raison d’être too.

Don’t you see it?

Two universes are converging, each needing the other to survive.

In the end, they become one universe.

Companies will merge. Synergies will multiply. Mega projects will be achieved, faster, more bombastically.

Earnings will flow.

Where do you want to be?

Remaining a doomsdayer will not help you.

Get into the flow.

Invest into debt-free, free cash-flow generating core tech as value deepens.

Look for debt-free, frontier minus one, free cash-flow generating semi AI companies, research these thoroughly for any red flags, and if those found are manageable, put in some funds.

If you find a frontier tech with manageable debt and a reasonable balance sheet, with a PEG ratio (price to earnings ratio divided by earnings per share growth percentage for the fiscal) somewhat under control. ok, put in some money there too.

Get out of the doomsday mindset.

Put your money to work, and then lock it in for another twenty years. Leave the compounded proceeds to your children.

Now.

Let the crashes come. There will be compounding post crashes too. Just look at the monthly chart of an IT index from 1995 to today. Dot-com peak looks miniscule and low compared to the levels of the monthly chart today.

Enough talking. Do the recce and then let’s talk.

Rounders

West’s got…

…woes, …

…currently being voiced in…

…Dawoes.

World Economic Forums come and go.

We’re not looking for flavours of the season.

And what’s our game?

Growth.

Ok.

With value.

How?

Reasonable price. Good dip on chart owing to current theatricals.

How do you measure value on a chart?

You can use conventionally accepted systems like Fibonacci, or you can make up your own systems too, whatever works for you.

Example?

First I’ll give you an example from Fibonacci.

Ok.

I’ll be buying into Growth below midpoint between 61.8% and 78.6% dip on a Fibonacci retracement.

Why?

That’s when the rubber-band is really being stretched, and beyond.

And what if the fall goes beyond 100 on the Fibonacci.

So be it. Change the retracement starting point to one pivot below. You now have a new Fibonacci. Buy below your band, defined just above.

Oh, so you’ve kind of re-assembled Fibonacci usage for yourself.

Ya. Anyone can do it.

Give me a more unique example. Something that’s your own.

I have the round number thing.

Being?

When all levels under consideration are broken or met, that’s when I activate ‘Rounders’.

Ha! Nice touch with the nickname!

:-).

Tell me about Rounders.

Well, at this point, when everything else is broken or met, and you’re poised to enter, you ask yourself just one more question.

Which is?

What’s the one round number below? 1000? 100? 50? 25? 10? 5?

5s are round numbers?

For scrips quoting in double digits, very much so.

Ok, so what of the one round number below?

Below this point, look for a break by about a percent, and buy there.

Sucking out all the value that’s possible, are you?

One takes what one can get.

What if you don’t get your buy?

So we don’t get it. Period. Soldiers are intact to fight another day. We wait for a few sessions and end up getting our price. Or not. In which case we deactivate Rounders if we are that keen to enter, and then we go for it.

I see. Soldiers?

Capital deployed into untriggered trade. This one’s no big deal either, by the way. Jesse Livermore used to buy three points below support, I believe.

Were you inspired by Jesse regarding Rounders?

I’ve read and re-read a lot of his books, so, perhaps.

But the name you’re using is yours.

It is. Rounders is a name I’ve given.

How come you gave a name?

Cheap thrills. 🙂

Where to?

Changing world order…

…dedollarization…

…shifting boundaries…

…new havens…

…new strategies?

Confused as to what to do?

Where to with your hard-earned funds?

Don’t panic.

I personally don’t adhere to growth at any price, …

…so if your fund manager has you chasing the Moon …

…in gold, silver, copper, crypto, or any other newly identified haven…

…for a second, stop…

…and reflect.

Remember that word…

…’value’?

Ya, that’s a word we like.

We’re pursuing value.

There’s value in growth.

One can see it in the chart, …

…or one can see it in numbers, what with GARP and all that.

GARP’s good, …

…value’s great, …

…and we add two more words.

Nil burden.

Optimal.

Quasi nil burden?

Will do.

That’s where our money is going.

Hopefully, you’ve gotten our drift, but we believe you have the wherewithal to decide for yourself.

We want three other dynamos to work for us.

Liquidity is created by minor capital gain pursuits.

There’s the steady dividend, which adds to liquidity.

Now comes the kicker.

We pledge some portfolio and create margin. A small income is then made on the margin.

So, to recap, there’s the main-game that’s long-term. That our wealth, created and compounding.

Three side-hustles then generate income on top. That’s it for us.

Yeah, over to you now. Where’s your money headed? In these turbulent times, I’m sure this question must be flashing through your mind.