FAQ

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

What are the Club Requirements?

Members must post a minimum of two ideas per year, based upon the anniversary date of their membership and must rate 20 ideas posted by other members. Each member can review their own submissions on their membership page. Only high-quality ideas count towards the membership requirement. In the spirit of the club, please do not wait until the last moment to meet your annual requirements.

What else is expected of VIC Members?

Members should rate ideas considerately and after fully reading them. If a member rates an idea very poorly or very highly, some commentary is expected by the other members. While there is no need to publicly declare or explain your rating, pointing out some flaws or errors in an idea rated "1" or "2" will help the author of the idea submit better work next time. Additionally, answering questions posted to your idea is an important part of good membership.

Can I share my user id with anyone else?

Members may not share their login information. Each member joins VIC individually. If there is someone else who would like access to VIC, please direct them to apply.

I like another member's idea or comments; how do I get in touch with him or her privately to discuss it?

We do not put members in touch with each other. If you have comments on the idea or wish to discuss it, please post your questions publicly for the benefit of all members. Email addresses and phone numbers may not be posted on the site.

MEMBERSHIP OBLIGATION

How many ideas do I need to submit to maintain my membership?

Members are required to submit two new ideas each year.

When are my ideas due?

Each member's two ideas will be due by the anniversary of the date they joined the site. Each member's anniversary date is listed on the My Member Page under Membership Requirement.

Why did you change the date that ideas are due from December 31?

Previously all members had to submit their two ideas by December 31. This led to a flood of ideas being posted each year from December 15 to 31. We think that members will benefit from a more even flow of ideas through the year.

Does that mean that I have until my Anniversary Date to submit my two ideas?

You will maintain full access to the site until your anniversary date. To prevent lower quality last minute ideas, members who wait until the end to submit their ideas will face the additional scrutiny of their fellow members.

I submitted an idea in the past and I still like it. Can I re-post the same company and have it count towards membership?

No. Previously any two ideas counted towards membership, but in future only a new idea for the member will count. You are still free to re-post ideas, but they will not count towards your two ideas for the year. You may submit an idea that was previously posted by another member of the site as long as your work on the idea is original.

How many ideas do I need to rate?

Members must rate 20 ideas per year.

What if I don't meet my membership obligation?

You will automatically be set to Re-Activation Status: see below.   

What are the expectations around the message string on an idea posted to the site?

Our expectation is for members to conduct or have previously conducted a basic amount of research into the idea before posting a question to the message string. Questions that can be answered by reading the idea writeup itself or whose answers are obvious from a quick look at annual report or 10-Q are not adding value to the investment discussion. Our expectation is that the member posting the idea will answer thoughtful questions posted on the idea, especially those questions that identify a flaw in the investment thesis or exhibit research into the idea.

RE-ACTIVISION STATUS

What is Re-Activation Status?

Members who do not submit two ideas by their anniversary date are automatically set to Re-Activation Status. To regain real time access to the site and the ability to rate and make comments, a member needs to submit an idea to the site. The VIC community will read the idea and vote on it. If more than 2/3 of the voting VIC members believe that your idea should count for membership, your membership will automatically be re-activated.

Couldn't someone post no ideas for 12 months and then submit a single idea for Re-Activation?

If a member owes two ideas and submits one for re-activation it will only create six months of membership. Additionally, VIC members are free to hold the re-activation idea to a much higher standard in their voting.

RATINGS

Do ratings affect the contest winner?

No.

Is anything else expected when giving a very low rating?

As mentioned above, very low ratings, such as a "1" or a "2" should be accompanied by some commentary about the flaws in the investment thesis.

Why is the rating not visible?

Ratings only become visible after an idea has been rated by at least 6 members.

IDEAS

What type of ideas are suitable for the board?

Value and special situation equity ideas are the main focus of the website, but additionally we welcome short ideas and fixed income ideas that are either special situation or distress in nature. International investment ideas, while discouraged as application ideas, are fine for members to submit to the board.

An idea was previously posted, when can it be resubmitted?

An idea can be resubmitted to the site a minimum of six months after a previous submission. Before posting an idea, please search by ticker or look it up under the ideas A-Z to see if it was previously submitted. If there is a special situation that has arisen during this time, please contact us about exceptions.

How often can I win the weekly contest?

The contest winner is selected solely on merit. There is no limit as to how often a member can win the idea of the week contest.

Will my application idea be automatically posted?

VIC does not automatically move application ideas to the members' site. Each member, once admitted, decides what ideas he or she would like to submit to the board.

Why was my idea taken down?

Occasionally members post ideas that have not been presented in nearly enough to detail to meet the standards of the board. VIC will take down ideas that clearly do not meet the quality levels of the other members' ideas. In addition, VIC may be forced to take down ideas for legal reasons. Fortunately, taking down ideas is an uncommon event.

FUNCTIONS

What sort of searches can I do?

You can search in members, ideas or messages. Any keyword may be entered in the search box to bring up all ideas that contain that keyword in the idea text.

What is a private message?

Members have expressed a desire to have certain comments limited to just the VIC membership community, rather than the general public. A member may elect to make a message private, so that it does not become part of the guest access message string when the idea becomes eligible for guest access.

How many characters can an idea or message have?

The database can support ideas of approximately 25,000 characters or approximately 4,000 words. The messages are limited to 6,000 characters or approximately 1,000 words.

Messages

What are "Messages"?

Each member can start two general discussion topics each year on investing areas that are not specific to any particular investment idea. Lately, we've seen some in-depth conversations on topics such as gas exploration and community banks develop on the message strings of individual ideas. This feature is intended to facilitate discussions that are general in nature and are not necessarily reflected in a single investible idea. Please check out FAQ for more details.

How many Topics can a member suggest during a year?

Each member may suggest two topics for discussion each year, however, if any topic becomes a popular and active topic, then the member may suggest an additional topic, for each active topic submitted. In other words, there are no limit to the number of topics that a member may suggest that prove to be popular with the other members, however, a member may only submit two unpopular topics per year.