Ronnie Moas, founder of Standpoint Research, who has given Cointelegraph some of the most accurate price predictions on Bitcoin this year, in an exclusive interview, spoke about his journey through Wall Street, his charitable endeavors and his new-found love for cryptocurrencies.
Renowned stock picker Ronnie Moas is many things, but he certainly IS NOT a billionaire, nor a former hedge fund manager, as was incorrectly reported by this writer earlier this week.
In fact, the 50-year-old admits that there is no place he would hate being more than in a room full of the world’s richest people. It is almost contradictory, given that the founder of Standpoint Research has been giving fortune-making stock recommendations for the past 20 years.
“I am not a billionaire, and I would not want to be seen in the same room as a billionaire. I am nauseated by the way they behave, I am nauseated by the amount of money they spend on themselves when we have people starving to death in this world.”
“One needs to raise their voice, as speaking nicely to the people at the top of the vulture capitalist pyramid is not working very well.”
A tale of two cities
It is not hard to understand Moas’ animosity towards opulent billionaires and the gross division between rich and poor, given that he has helped many people become wealthy. While some choose to hoard their wealth, he has taken it upon himself to give to those less fortunate.
While his charitable endeavors are a passion, they are byproduct of his upbringing and Education.
Born in New York, Moas grew up in the city. At 16-years- old, his family returned to his father’s birthplace in Israel where Moas finished school and started a degree, which he had to postpone to serve in the Israeli military.
A self-proclaimed ‘wizard’ with numbers growing up, he eventually returned to New York in 1994 where he went on to complete a Masters of Business Administration degree at Baruch College, City University of New York. Coupled with an Honors undergraduate degree in Economics and Business, he began to pave his way to success.
Cutting his teeth in the world of stock recommendations, he quickly became renowned for his accurate predictions. While he plugged away the hours, Moas developed his own 155-variable equity valuation model over a five-year period in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Moas attributes his success to a combination of the ideas generated by his model, as well as the insights he delivers in strategic reports.
“First of all, I outworked most in my industry. The ideas are generated by the 155-variable computer model. I don’t just tell you I like a name because it scored well on my model, I apply heavy fundamental and subjective overlays and then I go out with a 20-40 page report to back it up.”
“That is why I was able to separate myself from the pack. If you are doing the same thing as everyone else on Wall Street, you will end up with the same results. You have to be a сontrarian.”
“The computer model is my ‘secret sauce’. It allows me to crunch numbers on thousands of names in a matter of minutes and then I can focus on the names that rise to the top.”
The Robin Hood of Wall Street
Having spent the last 20 years providing the very best stock analysis to various clientele, Moas has rubbed shoulders with some of the richest people out there. Perhaps that is why he has taken it upon himself to give back to the poorest of the poor, Robin Hood-esque, having seen wealth and greed in the ugliest light.
For the past decade, Moas has been closely involved with Food for the Poor, one of the largest, five-star rated charity organizations in the US. Moas has devoted a lot his personal time, energy and resources to the charity.
Reflecting on a trip to Haiti earlier this year with Angel Aloma, the charity’s executive director, Moas described the abject poverty most Haitians are living in.
“It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and most people there live on less than four dollars a day. The government has no tax revenue and is not able to assist the starving and struggling population,” Moas said.
“Had anyone seen what I saw with my own eyes, not only the conditions these people live in, but the work that Food for the Poor does there, they would understand why I would take the shirt off my back for this charity and the poor.”
As a personal champion for the charity, Moas aims to raise $10 mln in funds for the organization – which is used to collect and distribute humanitarian aid, materials and supplies to the 18 Caribbean and Latin American countries supported by Food for the Poor.
In 2017, the charity built 5,000 double-unit concrete homes; distributed 4,000 container loads of humanitarian aid and more than 400 mln meals. Administrative expenses were less than five percent.
Highlighting the injustice of the modern world, Moas said wealthy individuals need to donate a fraction of their wealth to help others in need.
“If you donate $100, it buys 400 pounds of rice and beans. That’s enough to feed two starving children for an entire year. Three mln children have starved to death worldwide in 2017.”
To date, Moas has raised over $118,000 from more than 500 donations and says it is only a matter of time until he reaches his goal. You can provide donations here.
Work, travel, music
You wouldn’t be wrong if you consider Moas a workaholic. For the past 10 years, he’s been consistently rated as one of the best stock pickers in the world. With the help of a small and trusted team at Standpoint Research, he delivers stock analysis on a daily basis.
When he finds the time, travel and music are favorite pastimes. When he lived in Israel, he worked for Shuki Weiss Productions who has been bringing the biggest artists and bands in the World to Israel for the past 25 years.
Moas says Tel Aviv has become a central point for bands to play, given the socio-political turmoil in surrounding countries. Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith recently chose to end their respective European tours in Tel Aviv.
With a collection of more than 1,500 CDs, Moas has a broad taste in music. Pushed for a list of favorites, he singles out legendary rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, AC/DC, The Cult and Judas Priest.
PICTURE
His love of music is matched by what can only be described as a wanderlust, having visited more than 70 countries. He will be departing this week on a 38-day trip which will include stops in Mexico City, Los Angeles, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Oman and Amsterdam.
The midpoint of his trip is eagerly anticipated for the cryptocurrency world, as Moas will be co-headlining at the Coinsbank Blockchain Cruise. The cruise around Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand includes the most influential people in the cryptocurrency space, from John McAfee to Tone Vays.
Riding the crypto wave
Moas has quickly become a trusted voice in the cryptocurrency space, especially when it comes to valuations and price predictions. He has been spot on with a number of predictions in 2017 – which is extraordinary if you consider that he only started analyzing the cryptocurrency market this year.
“It happened six months ago. I was in my stock market bubble and I wasn’t even looking at cryptocurrencies. I was like everyone else on Wall Street – we would hear the name Bitcoin in passing and it sounded like some far-fetched concept and I paid no attention to it whatsoever,” Moas said.
“Someone told me to take a look at Ethereum and that weekend I ended up taking a look at Bitcoin as well and it only took me a few hours to realize what was going on there. I just pounced on it and since then I haven’t looked back.”
The accuracy of his recommendations have led to a surge in business, and Moas says 90 percent of his clients are now looking for cryptocurrency recommendations.
It’s hardly surprising that his name produces more than 1000 results on Google when searched alongside ‘Bitcoin,’ and his Twitter following shot up from 7,000 to more than 22,000 in the space of a few months.
Voltaire coined the phrase ‘with great power comes great responsibility,’ and it is a concept Moas is well-aware of, given his influence over people’s decisions to invest in cryptocurrencies.
“It’s flattering and rewarding from an emotional standpoint, but you have to understand that it’s a lot of responsibility I have on my shoulders right now. I have people from all over the world that are putting a big chunk of their life-savings behind my recommendations.”
“I have people calling me from third world countries who have an eighth of a Bitcoin, worth $2,000, hoping that it will be worth $20,000 one day so that they can rescue their entire family from poverty.”
And so it goes. Moas, the man who proverbially steals from the rich and gives to the poor, is fast becoming an insightful and trusted critic of cryptocurrencies and their future valuations. When Moas puts a number on something, you’d best sit up and take notice.