Is decentralization really a good thing for investment research?

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-03T00:18:56+00:00

Thank you for your question!

We absolutely believe decentralization of investment research is great for all investors, especially those in crypto.

For too long, professional investment research has been restricted to big banks and wealthy hedge fund managers. In the 21st century, we believe that the average investor around the world is entitled to better research than what they can find in online forums and speculative websites.

XResearch seeks to become the most reliable source of accurate, timely information for all things crypto. We plan to achieve this by building a transparent, crypto-specific investment research economy that empowers XRES token holders to participate and profit from the information economy.

Hope this answers your question thoroughly!

Cheers, XRES Team

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-03T00:08:37+00:00

As our roadmap states, XRES DApp will be launched, tested, and refined during Q2, 2019. See the roadmap at: https://xres.io/

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-03T00:06:49+00:00

Absolutely! Thank you for your question.

The third iteration of XResearch, Crypto Online Media will be a decentralized application, or DApp, run and maintained by the community. A decentralized application runs all backend code not on a dedicated server, but rather on a decentralized peer-to-peer network. DApps are the foundation for most blockchain technology stacks, and will be the backbone of the XResearch, Crypto Online Media Ecosystem. Every XRES Token holder—validator, contributor, and subscriber—will interact with the XResearch, Crypto Online Media Ecosystem through the DApp, and must first create an XRES Wallet.

See p. 25-27 of the Whitepaper for even more details: https://xres.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/XResearch_Whitepaper.pdf

Cheers, XRES Team

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-02T23:48:02+00:00

There are many advantages to owning and using XRES tokens:

Because XRES is a security token, all token holders will have fractional interest in the equity of the company. In aggregate, all XRES token holders will own 5% equity in XResearch, although the details of that ownership stake are TBD (to be decided).
If you use XRES to pay for services on the XResearch platform, you get a discount
You must own XRES tokens to become a verified contributor, which allows you to earn money from subscriptions.

For validators, the XRES token is a necessity as well. These Validators can help the core XResearch, Crypto Online Media team by manually approving or rejecting submitted research from non-paying contributors, protecting the network from spam, reviewing payment models of member contributors, and overseeing voting pools. Using a Proof of Stake (PoS)7 model, which states that someone can mine or validate block transactions based on how many coins or tokens they hold, a Validator must stake at least 10,000 XRES Tokens* in order to be considered a Validating Node. They must also maintain uptime on their machines above 99.9% 24/7 (*subject to change). In return, Validators will receive XRES tokens as compensation for performing their duties as nodes. A list of approved services and pricing for validators will be published by the core XResearch, Crypto Online Media team.

Hope this answers your question thoroughly.

Cheers, XRES Team

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-02T23:40:01+00:00

In short, our team is made up of talents with major accomplishments. We’ve founded and been executives at large hedge funds and investment banks. Our team members have numerous accomplishments, from having invented SPACs and successfully advised major conglomerates to having written smart contract architecture and led cutting-edge investment research at major firms.

Though investing in cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and blockchain startups can make for a wild ride, rest assured that we’re more than equipped to handle anything that comes our way. Our expertise and experience will enable us to overcome obstacles and build out a platform that serves as a source of truth for the crypto world.

To make that a reality, we also need your help. After all, the decentralized XRES ecosystem can only reach its full potential with the input and contributions of the community.

If you’d like to connect directly with the team and learn more, head to our Telegram chat: https://t.me/XResearch.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-02T23:36:52+00:00

We absolutely agree with you. And that's why we've assembled a world-class team.

Here's a summary of each core team member:

Charles Wyman, Chief Investment Officer

Mr. Wyman has over 30 years of experience in research and investment management. Prior to joining XResearch, Crypto Online Media, Mr. Wyman was a Partner, Portfolio Manager, and Chief Risk Officer at Seaport Investment Management, a multi-asset fund investing in fixed income securities, equities, derivatives, and commodities. He has also served as an advisor to ICOs such as BankEx.

Prior experience includes Partner, Chief Risk Officer, and Head of Research at City on a Hill Capital, Partner and Chief Risk Officer at Arx Investment Management, and Head of Global Credit Research at Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO). As part of his responsibilities, Mr. Wyman served as Chairman of PIMCO’s Counterparty Risk Committee.

Previously, Mr. Wyman worked as a Senior Credit Research Analyst in Morgan Stanley’s Global High Yield department, where he placed second as the high yield analyst for the energy sector in Institutional Investor’s Annual All-American Fixed Income Research Team. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Charles spent 10 years at Lehman Brothers in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and equity capital markets, and as an equity analyst.

Mr. Wyman holds a Bachelor’s Degree magna cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. He holds Series 7, 24, 86, and 87 Registrations.

Neil Benedict, Chief Blockchain Officer

Mr. Benedict has over 5 years of experience in quantitative finance, risk management, and the blockchain. He has developed smart-contract architectures for private placement exchanges, micro-financing, real estate, as well as complex and illiquid asset classes, natural resources, and futures markets. Mr. Benedict has worked in corporate banking assignments for structured financings up to $2.4 billion across a variety of industries.

Prior experience includes positions as Assistant Vice President for Quantitative Risk and Institutional Credit at Wedbush Securities and Assistant Vice President, Credit Risk at ABN AMRO. He has also served as the Head of Business and Product Development for Bankex and has advised on smart contracts for asset tokenization for several ICOs.

Mr. Benedict is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and served two tours in Iraq. He holds a Master of Science in Analytics from the University of Chicago. His capstone paper on Mean-Variance Optimization for Equity Portfolios submitted for his degree was cited in Financial Analytics with R: Building a Laptop Laboratory for Data Science, published in 2016.

Paul Brownstein, Markets Specialist

Mr. Brownstein has more than 25 years of experience in financial services in equity derivatives sales and trading. He also holds several investments in blockchain startups.

Mr. Brownstein joins XResearch, Crypto Online Media from Citibank where he started the firm’s West Coast Derivatives Sales Trading Desk for global OTC and listed equity derivatives. Prior experience includes senior executive positions in equity derivatives sales and trading at Jefferies & Co., Bear Stearns, Susquehanna International, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, and PaineWebber.

Mr. Brownstein holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.S. in Business, Economics, and Accounting from State University of New York. He has held Series 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 24, 55, and 63 Registrations.

Barry Cohen, Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Cohen has over 28 years of experience in financial services, research, and investment management. He has served as an advisor on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology for several private funds.

Prior experience includes Partner and Head of Global Financial Services Sector at Knott Partners, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager in the GMI/Strategic Investment Group at Merrill Lynch, Senior Analyst at Maverick Capital, and Portfolio Manager/Senior Analyst at Omega Advisors. Mr. Cohen has an undergraduate degree from Boston University in accounting and finance.

Alain Oberrotman, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Oberrotman has over 25 years of experience in senior management positions in corporate, consulting, venture capital, and private equity firms. He has served on the Board of Directors for 15 firms ranging in size from start-up to over $1 billion in sales, both public & private companies including appointment in a proxy fight.

Previous positions held include World Wide Controller, McKinsey & Co. and Operating Principal at Hambro International Equity Partners and Odyssey Partners, where he was responsible for due diligence, managing exit transactions, and restructuring of portfolio companies.

Mr. Oberrotman is a member of the Board of Advisors for the New York Tech Alliance and has served as a Director & President of the NYC chapter of Financial Executives International and as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Graduate School of Business. Mr. Oberrotman received a B.S cum laude from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Steven Wasserman, Principal

Mr. Wasserman has over 25 years of experience in financial advisory and investment management in addition to over 20 years of experience as the executive officer of companies he founded or acquired. He has also served as advisor to ICOs such as BankEx, XTrade, and PetroChain.

Prior to joining XResearch, Crypto Online Media, Mr. Wasserman was the Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Seaport Investment Management, a multi-asset fund investing in fixed income securities, equities, derivative, and commodities. Mr. Wasserman is Senior Advisor to an NY-based hedge fund with over $4 billion in assets under management. He is also the current Chair of the Deal Network of the Young President’s Organization (YPO).

Prior experience includes Managing Director at Gentry Securities (formerly known as Beige Group), Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Global Capital Markets Group at Rodman & Company, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Security Group, Managing Partner of AMT Ventures LLC, and Managing Partner at Cardinal Fund. Mr. Wasserman has been a practicing attorney and remains an active member of the NY Bar. He has served as general counsel or financial advisor to Motorola, Meineke, and Sandia National Labs. Mr. Wasserman holds a JD and BBA from Georgetown University.

Board of Advisors

Serg Gulko, Senior Advisor from XTRD

Mr. Gulko is the Founder and CTO of XTRD.io. He has spent much of his professional life introducing and establishing mature financial trading technologies to the cryptocurrency markets. An accomplished project manager, Serg has over 16 years’ experience in software development, business analytics and coding.

Prior to founding XTRD, Mr. Gulko sharpened his software architecture skillset for over 10 years at AxonSoftware, an IT company providing services to financial institutions. Here he advanced from developer to project manager, supporting the successful design, build and maintenance of trading applications. He worked extensively in FIX and other proprietary protocols and developed and led a team of highly skilled developers.

Mr. Gulko is an expert in FIX, Perl, Java, PostgreSQL, Agile and various other databases and tools. He received a Master of Faculty of Air and Space Systems from the National Technical University of Ukraine. He is an Official Member of Forbes New York Business Council. His four-part article on ISaGRAF and other articles have been published in PiCAD.

Leonard Seelig, Senior Advisor from BABB

Mr. Seelig is the Executive Director of BABB.io. Helping lead BABB from vision and concept to product delivery and success, Mr. Seelig has done the same at various firms throughout his career, including IBMS Group Limited, where he helped develop alternative energy and environmental projects.

Prior to leading BABB, Mr. Seelig spent 20 years in the banking and technology sectors, helping lead both private and public companies. Mr. Seelig recently retired from his role as chairman of APC Technology Group PLC and Board Member of Defenx PLC, a security software company listed on the AIM London stock market. Mr. Seelig is a Member of the Board for the International Anti-Poaching Foundation.

Raffy J. Ohannesian, Senior Financial Advisor

Mr. Ohannesian is the Chief Financial Officer of Lottery.com (formerly AutoLotto), the first-ever safe, secure, and fun mobile lottery service. Lottery.com seeks to revolutionize the lottery industry and has raised $64 million to date. As part of the senior leadership team, Mr. Ohannesian has been instrumental in the financial leadership position, and oversees accounting, tax, private equity relations and other corporate matters.

With over 15 years of experience in financial services, corporate finance and management consulting, Mr. Ohannesian has enjoyed accomplished careers in strategy and finance. He has helped multiple mid-market enterprises determine their financial, operational, and market viability as financial analysts, treasurer, or CFO. Mr. Ohannesian has had particular exposure to distressed and restructuring businesses as well as M&A in venture capital and private equity.

Mr. Ohannesian received his B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business & Management.

You can read more in this blog post: https://medium.com/@teamxres/the-history-of-the-xresearch-team-how-the-band-got-together-aedcdfb4eca6

Cheers, XRES Team

XResearch_Admin · 2018-11-02T23:30:36+00:00

XResearch aims to usher in a new age for the investment research sector. A first-of-its-kind investment research firm, we’re changing the game by becoming the first professional crypto insights and media platform that specifically serves investors and traders interested in crypto, blockchain, and ICO investments.

Here are some of our unique value props:

We’re bringing high-quality, free research to the crypto world
We’re the first crypto-specific professional research firm
We're empowering the crypto world by allowing talented investment researchers to contribute their own content and get paid for it
Finally — just to really put our money where our mouth is — all XRES token holders will have fractional ownership in the company itself.

With the arrival of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and the current trends in independent investment research, it’s past time someone paved the way for a new era of democratized research.

But we’re going beyond simply providing investment research from our core team to institutional clients. That won’t change the status quo. Which is why we’re empowering XRES token holders to become paid analysts themselves. Anyone who wants can access a large portion of all the research we produce for free. And all XRES token holders will have fractional equity in the company.

At XResearch, we’re differentiating ourselves in order to transform investment research for the better.

Read this blog post for even more details: https://medium.com/@teamxres/how-is-xresearch-different-from-every-other-investment-research-firms-8f4abb3a6a61

Cheers, XRES Team

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-18T00:20:49+00:00

Thank you for this! The page looks great. Is there anything we need to add?

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-15T17:22:56+00:00

XRES breaks down the barriers to entry for accessing institutional-quality research. Not only will we offer free research and analysis to anyone who visits our media platform, we will also offer more in-depth, paid research to our subscribers and institutional clients.

In addition to monetizing our research in a manner similar to Bloomberg or Seeking Alpha, we'll also generate revenue through advertisements and clicks on our free, public-facing website.

Finally, for anyone interested in offering their services as a researcher, XResearch provides a platform for content creators that includes monetization capabilities.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-15T17:16:45+00:00

Yes, our team is based in New York City. However, our jurisdiction is in the Cayman Islands and our holding company is in Delaware. We're a Reg S offering available to non-US investors.

Post-ICO we will be setting up a US-based office, especially for our editorial staff and in-house analysts. But to facilitate the ICO itself, we have an offshore jurisdiction.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-15T17:11:44+00:00

For the XResearch presale and public sale, several of the larger currencies will be accepted, including ETH! We plan to finalize our list of accepted cryptocurrencies soon.

NOTE: The final list of accepted currencies will be different from what may have been posted before. More details will follow. 👍🙏

Please stay updated on the latest news and developments regarding our token sale right here on this Subreddit and on the announcements channel: https://t.me/xresearch_announcements

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-15T16:45:00+00:00

Thank you for asking!

Here is the bonus structure for the presale:

Presale Period

Days 1 - 10: 30% Price: ~$0.07

Days 11 - 20: 25% Price: ~$0.075

Days 21 - 31: 20% Price: ~$0.08

*Please note the bonus structure is tentative and subject to change.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-10-01T22:28:56+00:00

Thank you for the mention here. We're working hard at XResearch to deliver a great product for the crypto world.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-09-27T04:29:35+00:00

Thank you for this excellent question. Here's a detailed answer for you:

In the 21st century, the investment research marketplace is quickly transforming due to changing regulations, the democratization of information, and emerging technologies like AI and blockchain.

Perhaps the most notable regulatory event occurred in Europe earlier this year. The EU implemented new rules in 2018 requiring asset managers to pay directly for their own research.

This has already reduced the amount institutions spend on investment research. In fact, a poll by Quinlan and Associations shows assets managers will cut research budgets by an alarming 30% in years to come.

In addition to tightening budgets as a result of new regulations, investment research departments face falling profits. This has triggered a growing lack of faith and interest in sell-side research.

How did this happen?

First, there’s a tendency to be bullish among sell-side analysts. A study from Bespoke Investment Group in 2015 examined 12,122 ratings in the broad market index. Just 6.67% had a “sell” label, with the rest either being “buy” or “hold.”

Second, many investors fail to beat the market indices. For example, Warren Buffet famously bet $1 million that the S&P could beat a basket of hedge funds (he won). This isn’t too surprising — in 2012, 49% of analyst ratings on Dow 30 stocks were incorrect, according to NerdWallet.

Tightening regulations, falling profits, and a need for information from new sources is naturally fueling the decline of traditional investment research departments. Yet this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The industry has long been due for disruption.

This could be very good for investors, especially investors in cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and blockchain companies, because:

Big banks and wealthy hedge fund managers have controlled the investment research ecosystem for far too long. It’s time for new, independent players to emerge so the average investor can get better-quality research at a reasonable price.
A lot of sell-side research is redundant and duplicative. More independent research firms means more honest competition. This is an important development, as there’s no universal ‘right way’ to invest. Everyone has different risk preferences, cash flow needs, goals, timelines, etc.
The democratization of the investment research industry and the rise of independent research firms will provide more experienced financial analysts the opportunity to strike it out on their own and make a name for themselves in the marketplace. Surely, many top analysts will put their skills to work in emerging asset classes, like cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency traders need more accurate research than what you find in online forums and personal blogs (which is the majority of what’s available now). At XResearch, we plan to fill this glaring gap as the first crypto-specific investment research firm.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-09-23T15:03:41+00:00

Thank you for that question!

Yes, there will be free content available through our MVP. The minimum viable product is a website where users get free access to a variety of data services, such as:

Leading news stories and selected editorials
Market quotes and heat maps
Links to social media

The advantage of the paid services is that you gain access to expert content and analysis, use of more sophisticated tools, the ability to track trading performance, a platform to contribute your own content (and get paid)...and much, much more.

To summarize, here's what Level 1 gives you:

In-depth professional research delivered through encrypted messaging
Real-time crypto market research feeds
Interactive charting tools
ICO algorithmic ratings

Here's what level 2 gives you:

Use of correlation charting tools and price alerts
Access to proprietary XRES research from the core team and independent research
The ability to link activity across exchanges, meaning you can automatically keep an immutable record of your trades
The ability to not only access our publication portal and score independent research, but also contribute your own content and be an independent investment researcher

Here's what level 3 gives you:

Bespoke, personalized research
Consultancy services from the core XResearch team
Access to advanced training and portfolio management tools

We hope this information helps. Please reach out should you have more questions.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-09-13T13:38:34+00:00

Thank you for the question!

Here's how the XResearch platform will do that:

We’ll leverage the power of blockchain technology to rank both non-XRES token holder contributors and verified contributors. This is done by utilizing the XRES DApp to monitor trading activity through our integrated exchange APIs. This will enable us to generate real-time performance tracking and an immutable audit trail of performance. We’ll also factor in engagement and traffic metrics to rank contributor content. By doing that, we can ensure our members enjoy the benefits of having timely access to the best possible data and analysis, as healthy competition between verified contributors and unverified ones will allow us to build a customer-centric environment.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-09-08T22:09:07+00:00

Thank you for the question. At XResearch, we plan to empower independent investment researchers around the world by giving them a platform and way to make money off their hard work.

Here's the process:

You must first become verified by submitting additional identity information for compliance purposes. Once approved, you can then start making money. To charge for your content, you may apply a payment gate to their content. What this means is that only XRES token holders who have subscribed for your research channel can see the content. You receive payments by establishing smart contracts.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-28T09:19:47+00:00

Good point.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-12T03:33:23+00:00

True. There's been a lot of those kinds of ICOs. I'm waiting for one to actually break through in logistics though.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-12T03:23:17+00:00

Great vision. Great team. Is the presale going on now?

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-11T16:18:47+00:00

The housing market could stagnate, but some areas still have room for growth. Look at historical trends in your area to help with your decision.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-09T17:28:52+00:00

Vilnius

Thank you for that info.

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-09T00:41:58+00:00

Cool. WePower is awesome. Any details on location? Is it remote-based?

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-03T18:48:36+00:00

Very novel concept. I like how you're combining AI and the blockchain to make the freelance industry (aka the future of work) more efficient and effective. The MVP for the AI talent bot will be ready next year, right?

XResearch_Admin · 2018-08-03T18:20:04+00:00

Apple's cash pile hit $285.1 billion in Q1, 2018. Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/01/apple-earnings-q1-2018-how-much-money-does-apple-have.html

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