Necessity and Innovation

After 45 editions of the Informed Investing Newsletter, subscribers are already familiar with the central hypothesis that Fintech Trades research has demonstrated: computational reasoning, rigorous analytical thinking, and practical systems design can reveal opportunities in financial markets.

By now, many of you are familiar with the Fintech Wave Equity Index and the platform that will soon be commercially available to support market research, equity selection, portfolio simulation, and trade execution.

This edition of the Informed Investing Newsletter is different.

It does not focus on financial technology. You can read previous editions to learn how the platform uses artificial intelligence to interpret financial data, how predictive models contribute to equity selection, or how sentiment analysis derived from natural language processing influences rankings. Previous editions have documented the performance of Fintech Wave indices and highlighted the average growth rates achieved by top-performing stocks.

This edition does none of those things.

There is no product demonstration. No discussion of predictive models. No performance statistics. No product hype.

Instead, this edition is about life experience, unforeseen circumstances, and the ingenuity that often emerges from necessity. By understanding the need that inspired innovation, you will better understand why Fintech Trades was created and how it evolved into its current form.

Life Experience

I joined the United States Army in 1978. Within four years of enlistment, I became a computer programmer and developed software that included a scoring system for ROTC scholarship selection, a search engine for Special Forces training and operational research, and low-cost clones of an expensive War Planning workstation used by military planners.

After military service, I transitioned into the private sector, developing software and hardware solutions for Silicon Valley technology companies. One of my most memorable experiences was serving as lead engineer for one of the earliest large-scale text messaging systems in the communications industry.

A few years later, I developed data management solutions supporting unmanned aerial systems as a U.S. industry delegate to NATO. Later, I led a team responsible for one of the first Storage as a Service (StaaS) deployments within the United States Army. Our solution modernized the hardware, software, and business model supporting multiple enterprise data centers across the country.

Looking back, there is a common theme throughout my career: using technology to solve difficult problems.

Unforeseen Circumstances

During the summer of 2022, I was surprised to receive a layoff notice.

My work as a trusted technology advisor to the Department of Defense had become a significant part of my identity. Suddenly, I faced the prospect of leaving behind decades of commitment and professional purpose.

First-class international flights. Michelin-star restaurants. Luxury hotels. Exotic destinations. Brilliant colleagues. Meaningful projects.

Almost overnight, that chapter ended.

I was forced to redefine myself.

My income changed. My spending habits changed. The topics I discussed, the people I spent time with, the places I visited, and even the clothes I wore changed. Everything shifted, and those changes became more pronounced as time passed.

The absence of excess had an immediate impact on my perspective. The person I saw in the mirror felt unfamiliar. I could no longer find comfort in the customary routines, environments, and experiences that had previously defined my professional life.

For these reasons, finding a financial path forward became one of the catalysts for what would eventually become Fintech Trades.

Income

After eliminating unnecessary expenses, it was time to establish a new source of income.

At 63 years old, with 45 years in the workforce and 15 years of military service, I applied for Social Security and Veterans Administration benefits.

A medical evaluation determined that years of military service, including parachute operations, qualified me for disability compensation and healthcare benefits through the VA.

These benefits provided stability, but they were only one piece of the puzzle.

Assets

The next challenge was preserving and growing the assets I had accumulated over a lifetime: home equity, retirement accounts, savings, and severance payments.

Maintaining the value of a home requires either financial investment or personal labor. Without salary and commission income, personal labor became the primary strategy.

I completed many home projects myself. Other changes were smaller but equally important: cancelling subscriptions, declining unnecessary upgrades, cooking at home more frequently, and reducing discretionary spending.

Individually, these changes seemed insignificant. Collectively, they extended the life of my savings and reduced dependence on future employment.

Ingenuity

By the winter of 2022, I had been retired for nearly six months.

Retirement was beginning to feel more familiar and comfortable.

I wanted to move cash from savings into a brokerage account and begin investing.

Then a simple realization occurred to me:

I didn't know a damn thing about picking stocks.

You have just read highlights from my professional background. Despite decades of technology experience, I had no formal financial education, no Wall Street experience, and no investment licenses.

That was my problem statement in 2022.

It is also the same problem faced by millions of people who have never studied finance professionally or earned credentials such as the CFA designation.

As I thought about the challenge, I began to recognize similarities between the ROTC scholarship selection software I wrote in the mid-1980s and the problem of selecting equities.

Scholarship selection relied on a composite score derived from multiple performance indicators, including grade point average, physical fitness scores, military science grades, marksmanship performance, and land navigation results. Students with the highest overall scores received scholarships.

The concept was surprisingly familiar.

Stock selection also requires consistent analysis and performance-based scoring across a large universe of constituents.

Indicators of future performance include earnings growth, profit margins, revenue-to-cost ratios, return on equity, valuation metrics, and numerous other financial measures. Fintech Trades also incorporates predictive modeling and sentiment analysis, but those topics are best left for future newsletter editions.

For now, it is enough to understand that companies demonstrating strength across multiple categories tend to resemble the straight-A students of the market. Companies that consistently perform well across a broad range of measurements become candidates for further research and consideration.

The challenge was not finding data.

The challenge was organizing it, scoring it, and transforming it into actionable insight.

Conclusion

Necessity did not simply inspire the creation of Fintech Trades—it demanded it.

In 2022, I faced a challenge familiar to millions of Americans. After a lifetime of work, I needed to preserve and grow my assets, yet I had no formal financial education, no Wall Street experience, and no professional investment credentials. What I did have was decades of experience solving difficult problems with technology.

The question was straightforward:

If software could objectively evaluate scholarship candidates, military operational requirements, communications systems, and enterprise technology platforms, why couldn't it evaluate publicly traded companies?

That question became the foundation of Fintech Trades.

The Equity Selection Engine was not created by a career investment professional. It was created by a technologist who approached investing as an engineering problem. The objective was to remove emotion, reduce bias, organize vast amounts of financial information, and identify companies that demonstrate the strongest combination of quality, growth potential, financial strength, and market opportunity.

Over the past four years, the research has demonstrated that computational reasoning, disciplined analysis, and systematic scoring can help identify opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed. More importantly, it has demonstrated that sophisticated financial analysis does not have to be reserved for large institutions, hedge funds, or investors with advanced financial credentials.

The mission of Fintech Trades has always been simple: democratize access to financial technology and provide individual investors with tools that help them make more informed decisions.

This newsletter edition was not about software features, performance statistics, or artificial intelligence. It was about the circumstances that made innovation necessary. The platform exists because a problem needed to be solved. Along the way, that personal challenge evolved into a broader mission—making institutional-style research accessible to anyone willing to learn, analyze, and invest with discipline.

Sometimes the most meaningful innovations do not begin with a business plan.

They begin with necessity.

Stay Connected

The journey that began as a personal challenge continues to evolve.

What started as an effort to better understand investing and preserve personal assets has grown into a research platform designed to help investors access institutional-style analysis through technology, data, and disciplined decision-making.

If you found value in this story, I invite you to follow the continuing evolution of Fintech Trades.

Subscribe to the Informed Investing Newsletter on LinkedIn or visit FintechTrades.com to receive future updates, research insights, platform announcements, and new newsletter editions.

The upcoming release of the Fintech Trades Equity Selection Engine will introduce portfolio simulation, enhanced market research capabilities, and integrated trade execution workflows designed to help investors move from research to action with greater confidence.

Stay tuned for additional updates as we prepare for public availability.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Adapt. Innovate. Invest with Insight.

Disclaimer: Fintech Trades is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, investment management services, or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Past performance does not guarantee future results.