Fortune favours the bold

War in the Caucasus: No longer frozen

2008-08-11T08:32:00.000-07:00

What started as a calculated gamble eventually became a high stakes of defending a nation against imminent invasion. With the Beijing Olympics at the forefront of eveyone's mind, including politicians, Georgia launched a quick strike against South Ossetia, a breakaway region.

What they didnt count upon was the rapid mobilisation of Russian troops surging into Ossetia. Apparently, Russian forces are now advancing well beyond the disputed regions into Georgian territories, pushing both nations closer to the brink of a real war.

What are the intentions of the Russians? Lets take a look:

1) Putin, the true power in the Kremlin has always haboured for a return to the might of the USSR. Georgia, Ukraine and the former Soviet satellites are somehow still viewed by the Russians as their 'backyard'. Cold War mentality prevails?

2) With the election of a western( particular US)-educated President, the Kremlin has been watching events unfolding-against their favour as the independent nation sought early membership into NATO, which Kremlin hotly disputes.

3) The separatists are inclined for a reunion with north Ossetia which is under Russian control. Perhaps by instigating these separatists, Russia hopes for an opening such as the current crisis to advance their ambitions of re-establishing influence in Georgia?

4) Georgia is a key 'southern energy corridor' which exports oil while bypassing Russia. this ensures a steady stream of oil to the West and US. By bypassing Russia, Russia's control over the oil ( and political leverage) affected, as seen when it used economics in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

to be continued

Purchases for the month

2007-08-12T05:23:00.000-07:00

I have been spending rather much rather lately.

Much of them have been on clothes that enhances my corporate image. Bought a light brown pointed shoes which can serve dual purposes for casual and office wear from Pedro at about $89. I consider it cheap because anywhere else, such shoes cost more than $100, especially the ones that are made in Italy. Pedro's shoes however, are not made in Italy and its a Singaporean brand. Quite impressed with the design though.

For shirts, i had a long sleeved Daniel Hechter for $39, another good buy. It has a white base and black stripes( i like striped shirts). Simple design, but timeless.

Today, i bought an American Polo Association belt from Jurong point for only $15. Brown striped(yes striped!) .

Pretty much about it. But i have ensured that before i made these purchases, i thought about its dual functionality. Since my contract is ending soon, i have to get accessories that not only is fitting for the office, but for casual wear. Haha, think Economics: maximising utility

2007-08-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

The View from Where i work. Absolutely a Concrete jungle where pretty office ladies and the lads throng the streets; morning, lunch and dinner.

Makes you feel like a working professional.

The Weeks so far

2007-08-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

I have to say that getting this job at the Firm is really a blessing; a silver lining in the cloud. Although i don't really learn much unlike my friends who are doing AP/AR, i did gain valuable industry insights, and the opportunity to take the initiative to reach out to people of higher authority and have lunch with them, hence in the process getting to know their job scope better.

Before the Firm, i was looking at the corporate world through rose-tinted glass. Now, this glass is shattered. I emerged more enlightened.

It's never easy in the office. You don't know who the 'feedback' units are, who your real friends are. There are lots of people in the 'grey' zone of moral principles. Its hard to find the righteous souls. Often, you get mistaken quite frequently. As a temp, i am free from these. Then again, my mentor, (Buddha bless him) has enlightened me much about the office politics.

He gave me career advice and study advice which eludes me all this while before i met him. He emphatically emphasises what's at stake, what are the ramifications of this..jobs with gd prospects and the like.

Real fortunate to have met him. He's a straight-forward guy, not a slimeball and i enjoy the moments where we talked b/w the partitions.

And he's a true Buddhist. sometimes, this makes me ashame but i will follow his footsteps with fervour.

And just recently, i had lunch with the 'tea-lady' Irene. She's a demure, soft spoken gal. We talked lots of stuff and i get the impression that if one knows her well enough or if she's comfortable with you, she can be talkative in the good way. A kind of person you wanna associate with. I shall ask more info abt the stock market in future.

And then, there are the lunch perks if you are a temp eating out with them. Hugh(the french operations risk manager) treated me twice already. I have to repay him back. We chatted abt France, French history(i studied them), football and nothing else related to work.

Its strange how people can open up to me. I guess its because i am sociable? I smile at them, ask how they are and all that, sympathise with them. Damn, this job really gives me confidence to speak to strangers.

Just spoke to Susan from marketing. Man she goes to the gym. That explains her great figure. She always smile at me. In fact she's the only one from marketing that smiles at me(Marketing is the Out of boundary zone in the firm). She was formerly from SIM-UOL, and she's doing well now!!

Now, its time to think of what presents to buy for them when i depart from the firm.

'So say we all'

Trampoline

Smashing Thursday

2007-07-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday always the day i look out for cos after that, its the long weekend for me, and i look forward to the outings with Benjamin (and sometimes Kenneth and Hakim if they do come) after office.

I met him at Samsung to retrieve my phone which i orginally intended to agree to repairs. Initial dignostic costs abt $26 which is irrelevant or 'sunk'. Estimated FULL costs of repair as according to the counter staff on last sat, was around $68, which was why i agreed to the diagnostic cost.

Little did i expect the actual full cost to rise up to a wide margin. It became $119.54, which is like a 75% increase from $68! What is this?! A margin call payment?(something i learned from the present firm i am working in)

I disagreed to the repairs and promptly, we took a walk to Sushi Tei. Beside me were 2 Japanese 'trainees' in their 40s to 50s. I took the initiative to say hi when my eyes and the other guy's met(guess its part of my on the job training at the FIRM that equips me with the social skills to break the ice b/w strangers, and it helps if the office climate is a treacherous one to begin with)

He asked if I was a native Singaporean and i said yes and he wouldn't believe that the majority of Singaporeans are Singapore-born and bred. (he has the conception that many Singaporeans were 'Malaysian-Singaporeans')

I asked him abt his opinions of Shinzo Abe and the upcoming Upper House elections in 3 days time and the sensitive issue plaguing the pension system in Japan and he replied that Shinzo is basically, going to lose this one.

And then i talked abt my tour in Japan and how i like Kyoto in contrast to Tokyo and he fully agreed that Kyoto is a much better place to live in. He also spoke abt the opposite sex and the funny encounters he had with the local women here, which i shan't elaborate because of its brawdiness.

People were looking at me and the Japanese. I guess they must have been shocked that i was ale to strike a conversation with them. And i did this w/o uttering a single word of Japanese. you dont need to speak Japanese to talk to them. Some simple English and genuine sincerity and adequate knowlege of their country does the job unduly well. They treated me and Ben to 2 bottles of Sake. I prefered the first one because it tasted sweet but according to them, that's not REAL sake.

The second bottle was stronger and i felt flushed immediately. They offered to pay me and Ben's dinner(YES its true!) but hey man, their treat for the sake is good enough. With that, they left first.

Strangely, we didn't even introduce ourselves properly. No names, addresses and email exchanges. I would say the whole talk was a roller coaster ride-we were interested to know abt each other but somehow, these were left out!

Next week in store, i guess i shall have lunch and possibly dinner with the French ORM(Ops Risk Manager). Am really going to be interested in his views of Singapore. He's only 2 years my senior and perhaps, we shall talk abt things related to our age group.

"So say We all"

Trampoline out

Conclusion of a month in the FIRM

2007-07-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Yup, it appears that i have not been updating regulary unlike the flurry of posts which i has during the first few weeks of work. It appears that everything is becoming routine, such that i even began to think of an apt depiction of life in the derivatives business, asa part-time. If someone askes me something like, "So whats the plan for work today?". The answer shall be, "The same as yesterday". Pretty simple. Pretty boring. Definately routine.

Ken, the Dutch/French who could potentially be my first foreign friend/lunch buddy, has left for greener pastures. He's sent to Hong Kong for 3 months and that means when he's back, i won't be around for good. We chatted after work and i remembered him asking me LOTS of questions which borders on the ones being personal to the ones being hilarious and crazy, for example name me the hottest 3 BABES in the FIRM. Sadly, i really can't think of any.

He joked that once i graduate, i shall sit in the Compliance Manager's chair. No thanks dude, having worked as a part timer in that department, i realized that reading through TONS of documents, coordinating with the various unco-operative departments and answering to MAS auditors directly, isn't exactly what i call an exciting job. I rather be in investment banking.

Another bad news, my compliance manager is leaving soon. This time, he got a better paying job(and hopefully, a more friendlier environment) at another firm. Fortunately, he's leaving after i am leaving and that leaves us ample time for lunching.

I really enjoy lunch with him. He offers great insights into the finance industry, the ideal career route one should pursue, what jobs to avoid if possible and of cos, studying studying and more studying.

One of the reason i hang out with him is because he takes me to places beyond raffles place. To be honest, there are many eateries at where i work but few good ones to lunch at. Furthermore, we sometimes overshot the 1hr for lunchbreak and coming back with a manager gives me more "legitimacy" as compared to coming back alone late.

I ate for the first time with the IT staff and he's Indian. We ate Indian food( I suggested cos i like Indian food) and thats where i got to know the 'other' perspective of the other staff.

for example, who dislikes who and all that.

Best of all, he treated him the whole lunch set.

As for the Client Support Officer, she's gone through a remarkable change: apart from the new haircut, she seems more polite and gracious nowadays. I don't know why. She thanks me for the work being done(which was very uncommon initially) and even does not scold or reprimand me for the various silly mistakes i made.

The stock market is unpredictable. So is life. And to better illustrate the point, i have the NS asking me back for a briefing tmr. Frak that!

Sometimes its necessary to ask simple, basic questions to avoid greater disasters-Brian

2007-06-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

I can never emphasised any greater than this. Before i started working, the most common advice is not to ask too many questions cos this will irritate your employers. Well, to be honest, i asked many questions. Questions not just related to my work scope, but to things beyond my job. i asked the dealers questions about their operations, the acocuntant about her work, the compliance manager about his role in the company and all that.

If in doubt, do not hesitate to ask for affirmation. Being a smart aleck only to create mistakes gets you no praises, but bad impressions. If it gives you reassurance, then JUST BLOODY ASK.
You have a mouth not just for doing other things, but to ask as well.

Pride gets you nowhere. Here's what Nick Leeson said:

"People at the London end of Barings were all so know-all that nobody dared ask a stupid question in case they looked silly in front of everyone else."

And nobody asked. He got away with his losses for so long that the bank eventually collapsed.

Well, anyway, i met Ken in the toilet and he said something about his work being busy next week. I took the opportunity to arrange lunch with him on next Monday and he agreed!

Ahh..the weekend beckons! Time to rest, before work begins shortly.

Another Exciting Day!!

2007-06-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hell if this keeps up, my 3 months in the company will be a blast!

The day started when i arrived in office at about 8.50am(i am increasingly arriving near 9a.m these days) . I really loved the serenity in the office. Few people means less stress. No bosses means 'its time to relax'; at least from my point of view. But then, Lay Lian the Toto queen or the long term accountant, was already busily typing away. What a way to start the day by burying yourself at work.

I went out (its modus operandi for me to take a dump in the toilet every morning) and met Ken the French at the lift lobby. He always greets people with the words, "how are you?" and my standard response, like most Singaporeans, are "Fine".

I asked how long he works there and he's relatively new;about 4 months. And then he HAD to say " you know, Irene's waiting for you to buy her coffee". I forgot what was my reply. But i remembered distinctly me asking him the excitement of his job. He said sometimes its quiet and illiquid(market). I said that's good cos he could relax.

I have always viewed Ken as a slacker but his following response changed my perception of him.
he said" Its not good. Being relaxed isn't good for the brain". Goodness. I guess we can all learn from him. Procrastinating sucks...big time. Already know i feel i am beginning to lose touch wit my accounting concepts. Damn.

but the fun thing is that i managed to interact more with the laojiaos in the FISHTANK. And of cos, Irene. She's kinda sweet, and she revealed that she was from Singapore Polytechnic. The oldbirds like to call themselves the "young ones" and they are in their 40s. I learned much from them. They told me the various functions of the machines, and the MOO for each excchange, the ways to identify and explain the levels of liquidity, the bid and ask prices.

I realized that say, should the index be 18,900, the prices will be quoted as selling at either 900 or buying at 900, not the whole 18,900. Maybe i should ask them more tomorrow. But i watched with fascination and horror as the figures changed in real time to other figures, within seconds! There are queues at certain strike prices i believe, and you can see that the when the queues decreases, the order has been successful.

To be very frank, most of these things don't make much sense to me now. Its not because i am inept or what but its just that i do not have the exposure to them. But i greatly appreciate the time that these people took to inform me.

Ken the French loves playing Toto. He self-proclaims himself as the "Toto King" and uses terms like 'System 7' which i only hear from my mom, and others who plays lottery. Its kinda amusing to know that the caucasians do indeed play lottery.

Well, time to go off now. Thursday coming soon and this means...my off day is nearer!! But first, there's always the question of coffee for Irene...but she's like busy!! And when i tried to pull a fast one on Ken, by saying that he's the one who really wants to ask Irene out..he rebutts it saying "oh i had coffess with her already, now its your turn". I replied why not we(ken and I) have coffee together.

the bastard said: "i don't do guys". The fishtank rocked with laughter.

Fun and...Embarassment in the FISHTANK!!!

2007-06-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

gee today has to be probably the 1st time that i felt great working in this company.

Gerry and i today shared our real 1st laughter together. It was a joke aimed at the seemingly cantatonic lifestyle of being an auditor(which i foresee i will become eventually that is IF i do graduate successfully).

Auditors lead a sad existence. They work late into the night, say 3a.m and they still report to work as usual, that is 8a.m. CRAZY! This explains why many auditors left the industry after 2 years because the workload if simply too much. After experiencing what my colleagues are going through now, i am beginning to see that being in a corporate office, isn;t going to be a breeze.

Anyway, back to the HIGHLIGHT of the day. I visited the FISH TANK again asking about the MOO orders for zinc contracts and of cos, the 'walking encyclopedia', Irene is always around and she's the one i always ask if i have any doubts.

I struck a conversation and asked if she was from NUS Business to which she said no and nothing else. And then the French, Ken HAD to interject: "You know you should ask irene out for coffee and then treat all of us coffee because we have to cover her workload. Don't look at her this way;she says ya nice and that and i really think you should ask her out'

I was dumbstruck. She was dumbstruck. Nobody expected him to say this. Has to be the French.

Then another caucasian started laughing and i turned red. She turned red as well and this French(his name is Ken) keeps saying " Take her for coffee!"

I told him if i do that, my salary is low and hence i can't afford to treat everyone coffee. I like this guy- he's kinda funny. Ken is one person i would love to know better. and of cos Irene and the rest of the dealers.

To be honest, i couldn't concentrate on work after that. I left the dealing room mumbling" I should be going now" and the other caucasian laughed: "You guys are scaring him away!!"

haha, lets hope my days in the future will be like this. I would really love to have coffee with Irene btw...

Lunching

2007-06-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

Had lunch with Gerry today and to be honest, i kinda loved lunching out with him. Away from the women colleagues, away from the ubiquitous back-stabbing and politics that seems to be THE only conversation that keeps everyone talking.

Comon, there's more to life than just talking bad about one another!! Why not talk about planning an outing for once instead of thinking if the next move the other may make?! I am sure an outing enhances camaraderie which i feel is so desperately needed in this segregated working climate.

Gerry really acts like a true mentor, advising me to study hard and telling me industry stuff like the kind of high paying jobs, what jobs that suck and of cos, he keeps telling me to study hard cos a degree, master or CFA is getting very common nowadays and we face competition from the foreigners.

BTW, the ORM who's French is just 2 years my senior (that makes him 24) and he's already a manager. Luck or skills? or just because he's French? That's for you to decide.

Gerry gave me a tour of the vicinity and i really loved it. We visited DBS HQ, SGX, Deutscher Bank, ABM Amro, Barclays and Credit Suisse, which is the investment bank i hope to enter upon graduation.

Of cos i couldn't enter their offices..but it would be nice if i can work there one day. That day will come i hope.

and another thing, don;t you get frustrated with gals sometimes? I mean i duno what the hell they are thinking, sometimes they response to you and most of the time they dun. Its like they treat you like a punching back after a trauma happened and then dumped you when you "purpose" is fulfilled. That's for gals younger than me i suppose.

Well, maybe that's why i don't really feel great being in a relationship because of the kind of stunts they pull. i rather be off being in the company of male companions, or perhaps reading up some financial books or whatever.

But more to the point, i enjoy talking with gals older than me. I find them very mature in their thinking and at least, they don't act like their younger counterparts. We talk about sensible stuff which sometimes makes you feel they at least, they are giving you the proper respect as an adult. For instance, my friend's sister earning big bucks and she's pursuing a master's now.
The first time we met, we clicked like hell-we talked abt jobs, finance stuff and i think she was impressed with my ambitions and all that.

That's what i like about being with older people. They just make you feel mature. My advice to guys:

Get older gals(not that old). If you are the type who converses beyond what's on the surface, i think ladies like this suit ya better. Period.

Continuation

2007-06-15T02:22:00.000-07:00

all right, i know i left the last post with somewhat incomplete information with regards to my job scope. So now, lets get on with the description which at first, may sound appealing to the uninitiated, but when one DOES actually the job, it tends to get routine and mundane after a while.

I am to collect piles of DESK TICKETS which are separated into 2 kinds: the local tickets that contains information such as contracts that are traded through SGX and the other, which are the foreign contracts traded through foreign exchanges such as NKM (Nikkei ), SGK(Singapore Exchange), TW(Taiwan Exchange) and HSI( Hang Seng Index.)

These are all world wide exchanges that are responsible for a large % of all derivatives, equities trading in the world! One of the key things that i must learn to remember is the MOO or 'market on open' timings for each individual exchange: basically, SGX opens at 0845 while the Nikkei opens at 0745 etc.

I am to compare the time stamps on these tickets, pick the latest execution timings and compare them against the respective MOOs and calculate the difference and writing comments that range from Satisfactory to Unacceptable if the difference falls beyond the specific time required.

But the fun part of this is that i get to meet the traders/dealers themselves if i have any doubts with regards to whatever they have written on these tickets.

THE FISH TANK:

yup, thats what my compliance officer Gerry remarked when he showed me this glass enclosed room that houses the main operations of the securities business. This is the hive of the company where the dealers pick up calls from institutional clients, placed(execute) these orders and earn their business.

This is also the business line which saw Nick Leeson making his fortune, only to bring down one of Britain's oldest merchant bank.

In this digital wired and wireless age, gone were the days where such trades(my company is a futures and options trading firm) were made in the 'outcry' system. This was where traders yelled, gesticulate with arcane and sometimes incomprehensible hand signals that could shift the markets, causing losses and gains to be made.

Now, everything is computerized; Orders placed via the computers and traders becoming more relaxed in their methods of dealings than their early predecessors. I just love being in that room although i know that none of them makes much sense to me currently. I saw the clocks on walls that displayed different time zones, Bloomberg, and of cos, several figures on those computers that i guess, should be the prices of contracts like oil, metals etc.

I managed to interact with one of the French trader there. I think he's the new trader which explains his friendliness. I was asking him questions about the MOO and he thought i was from MAS! ( which i found it to be absurd because that would make me a poor auditor who doesn't know his MOO).

Then he was kind to photocopy the list of MOOs for me and Lilian, one of the accountants who met Nick Leeson before, chatted with him and i heard this French man saying: "Tomorrow Toto huh? We strike the jackpot we can both retire!"

Interesting. I didn't know foreigners play the local lottery. Anyway, there's this other female dealer which i find quite attractive because she looks like the intellectual kind who is damn smart. She looks like 25 years old. And she's polite with me when i asked all those MOO orders though she is busy with the trades. I think every dealer there is quite polite there. I caught the French man chatting on his MSN and looking at photos of gals on some website!!

Haha, I just hope to talk more to these traders, learn more about the futures and options business and make my time there worthwhile.

Day of Days

2007-06-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

PHEW! Just finished 1 week of work. Normally, I don't really wanna write a blog or something because i personally think its a waste of time but after what I have witnessed at work, I feel that its worth writing them down, and looking back at them for a good reminiscence.

To start off, I work at a "prime brokerage firm" which is a subsidiary of a French bank and apparently, this firm is the number one clearing house in SGX. My pay is very much like an intern although I am a part time assistant to the compliance officer.

Before actually accepting this job, I was under the impression that I would be doing accounts-related stuff. However, I was doing something rather different: basically it seems like data-entry but there is a lot of checking of time stamps on trade tickets(both foreign and locals) which i then have to write on a report to be reviewed by my immediate superior, then the Managing Director.

Knowing this, I felt that screwing up is not an option and hence, the responsibilities are inherent.
The atmosphere in the office is tense; the admin department itself seems to be full of robots!! All typing away at their keyboards, talking over the phone over business related items and now, with the MAS audit underway, the workload for my colleagues just got worse!!

I really do sympathise with them. They worked as if they are married to their jobs! Maybe this is the price to pay for taking up a fast-paced corporate job.

Anyway, am feeling tired now. Shall continue next time. Now i treasure my weekends more and look forward to learning more knowledge from the admin people, and ultimately, the brokers.