Graduation Day! Sure technically it was over with the last exam. But the ceremonial graduation day makes it formal and official. Finally, after three long years of hard work and fun, of frustration and joy, it really is over. I gained a lot of knowledge during those three years. But more than what I learned are the friendships that were forged during those times. Classmates became friends, friends who help you pull through the long nights of classes, studying, and exams. So to Ed, Rose, Rizza, Beth (and Banjo), Trina, Val, Wil, Glenn, Roche, Clare, Calen and all other classmates turned friends: It’s been a great ride. THANK YOU for being with me! I know, that we will remain friends forever. This song is for you guys.
It’s Over
The last exam was finally done. After a quick snack courtesy of the MBA Program Director, after hasty goodbyes, after three years of studying, taking exams, discussing cases, MBA is finally over. In a way, it was a bit sad. Despite the adversity, it has been quite fun and enjoyable so how could it be happy? But I guess there are no happy endings, only happy beginnings. So here’s to a happy beginning!
The Interesting World of Financial Markets
My investment management professor shared to class of this interesting thing called pollution futures. It turns out that in some places, there’s a limit on the amount of pollution you can spew into the air, water, and land. Companies can buy rights to certain amounts, but some may need to pollute more than projected and some may need more. What they do is to buy rights from those who don’t need it. In effect the right to pollute becomes a commodity which can be traded and speculated on. If that can be done with pollution, it can be done with just about anything. It’s almost like gambling where you can bet on anything, and in some ways it probably is. Aren’t financial markets great? :)
Feng-shui
No, this is not about that lame horror movie starring the misguided daughter of an ex-president :P I was just watching a feature on feng-shui on the National Geographic. I find it amazing how feng-shui is so popular. In Hong Kong they build buildings based on it. In fact, there’s a building with a hole on it to allow the dragons of the mountain behind the building to drink at the bay in front of the building. So, thoughtful of them :D And at the HSBC, they have a good luck escalator and a bad luck escalator . The good luck escalator is for employees while the bad luck escalator is for clients. The result is that the bank gets higher revenues. Very comforting thought if you’re a client, huh? :P
In another case of feng-shui strangeness, my finance professor related to use how a financial institution in Hong Kong contracted the services of feng-shui masters to predict the stock market for a certain year. The actual outcome turned out eerily like the predicted outcome. So alike that they contracted the services of the feng-shui masters to do the same for the following year. Although my professor didn’t say what the result for the following year was, he said that they expected that the actual outcome would also follow the predicted outcome. Make you wonder, though, if all those feng-shui believing traders traded, consciously or unconsciously, based on the prediction. A case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. But then, doesn’t superstition work that way?
Tired
I’m tired. I think I’m still mentally drained from yesterday’s finance exam. At first glance it looked like a giveaway exam. But our professor has devious ways of making things a bit harder. Take for example the subtle wording in one question: Net Income as against EBITDA. It’s so basic and yet it got me. So irritating X-( And then there’s the essay part that had to be answered not in paragraph form but in a bullet point format. Have you ever encountered that? I had to pause and think how to go about doing that one. I ended up with bulleted paragraphs :))
UPDATE: Turned out I did pretty well in the exam. Happy happy joy joy!