Warick's blog

. : ウォリックのブログ ( W a r i c k ' s b l o g ) : .

The myth of Graff Diamonds and Google search · 360 days ago

So I was checking my log to see who has been a regular to my site, and to my surprise someone has actually managed to find this page while searching “Graff Diamonds” on www.google.co.jp!

Obviously without hesitation I went on to www.google.co.jp and type in “Graff Diamonds” in the search field to how I rank – and guess what? my page actually came out as the second choice! (anyway whoever that person is – my apologies for tricking you into my blog!)

Who knows I might just make millions if I ever do decide to start setting up an online diamond website selling Graff Diamonds to Japanese customers!

どうぞ　よろしくお願いします！

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The US sub-prime crisis · 361 days ago

If you ask around the City, most people will tell you that they have underestimated the side effect of the recent US sub-prime melt down . What most envisaged originally as a mere “credit market correction” had already sent the heads of two biggest names in Wall st. rolling, and may ultimately be the catalyst that will send the global market into recession.

The latest views reflected in the market suggested that investors have began to price in the possibility of a US recession, and traders are betting heavily that Fed will act in the upcoming December FOCM meeting by slashing another 25bps off the Fed Fund rate.

Since the start of the credit crisis, Fed had cut its based rate by 75bps in order to revive liquidity in the market. With most financial institutions licking their wounds from the billions of write down announced recently, banks are reluctant to part with their cash. This lack of short term interbank lending has sent the short term money market rates to historic highs.

Although the short end of the curve has retreated slightly to a more acceptable level, the once seemingly unlimited cheap funding that fuel the relentless buying sprees of the private equities and hedge funds are gone. With credit spreads trading at least 2 to 3 times the pre-summer levels, it is no surprise that private equity sponsors have began switching their focus to the preservation of the value on their investments rather than on new buyouts.

So that leaves us with the question – is US really heading for a recession?

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Interesting Observations · 476 days ago

I have to admit that I have been spending excessive amount of time on facebook lately – which partly explained the lack of blogging in the recent weeks.

To give facebook some credits, I have managed to trace back loads of old friends whom I otherwise wouldn’t even have a clue of where they are at the moment, let alone the chance of actually catching up in real life.

Anyway having been back in HK for the last 2 weeks, I have to admit that HK hasn’t really changed much over the last couple of years; streets are still jammed packed with far too many immigrants and tourists; blazing summer heat due to the lack of ventilation and exacerbate by exhaust from the air conditioning units.

So why am I in HK then? Besides visiting my family, food and shopping alone would probably be enough to attract anyone to visit this extremely congested city. People often said that HK is a shopping paradise because of the ease to find whatever you are looking for at unbelievable prices – a genuine Louis Vuitton bag that sells for an astronomical USD 3000 or a “not so nice” one for only USD 50 just a few streets away.

Hence that is why for most men it is a suicidal attempt to venture into this “forbidden city” with any sort of female partners, be it your spouse or your family members.

Well I would consider myself fortunate to have gotten away with only a USD 2500 handbag labeled as mom’s early b’day present. As I stepped out of the shop with my mom, I took a quick glance at the neighboring Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Bottega Veneta boutiques and told myself with great relief:

“Good thing the damage was done Christian Dior”

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Summer frenzy · 512 days ago

Not quite summer yet here in London. June is almost coming to an end and it is still freezing cold outside and the miserable weather doesn’t really help either.

For the last 6 months at work myself and this colleague of mine whom I work closely with realised that there is this “Friday conspiracy” going on against our business area. Consistently for the past 9 out of 10 weeks, Fridays had always been the craziest day of the week in terms of the amount of work coming through. Surprisingly tomorrow is no exception – I have 3 interest rate swaps to execute, while the colleague of mine are fortunate enough to take the lead with 1 more execution ahead of me. Actually last 3 weeks have been a “summer frenzy” for our team, but extremely rewarding – I have generated more revenue in the last 3 weeks than I have for the last 6 months.

Well to be fair I shouldn’t be complaining about that given that more executions translate to more revenue. However with us 75% done with this year’s budget and a guarantee of at least another 20% in the pipeline for the next 3-4 weeks, there is increasingly more incentives to actually procrastinate the executions for as long as possible to avoid the fate of substantially exceeding the magical £100m figure.

To most people the idea of deferring your potential revenue seems like “ramblings of inanity”, and only a handful of people will truly embrace this as the essence of managing the corporate expectations.

Anyway the rate at which I generate revenue is largely beyond my control, but one thing I can be certain is that 50% over budget is not impossible if business continue to flourish at this rate. Consequently next years budget might therefore be astronomical, but we can always worry about that after the March paycheck.

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The art of influencing · 549 days ago

As part of my training program I have to complete a series of courses and influencing skills that took place today was one of them.

Not that I am desperately in need of influencing anyone (actually I do :p), but I thought it would be fairly interesting to actually learn the skills set that will enable me to “get anyone to have it my way” (yes you people better watch out for my “influence” from now on!)

Obviously for mere mortals without undergoing these intensive influencing skill courses will find it hard to differentiate between “manipulating” and “influencing”. Apparently influencing is getting people to act in your way with them having a very clear idea of your true motives, while manipulation is needless to say the dark arts practice commonly by most females to get their ways around the seemingly powerless gentlemen without them actually realising it.

Given that I am often being influenced fairly easily and particularly susceptible to manipulations, I thought I should actually learn the “dark art” myself to create a self awareness of the techniques commonly employed to better protect myself from all “evils”.

Well the course was actually fairly interesting, and with no surprise the first step to effectively influence someone is to actually know the person and understand what “type” of person he/she actually is. There are 4 main types:

1) Drivers
2) Amiable
3) Expressive
4) Analytical

Not going to go into much details, in a nutshell by knowing what category the person you are trying to influence falls under, you can employ certain “styles” of communication patterns in which he/she is most susceptible to. Think of it as creating rapport with the person you are trying to influence by acting and behaving in a manner in which suits him/her best.

There are a lot of other things being taught which I am not going to list all of them here (obviously otherwise how am I going to influence others when everyone on the street knows what I am going to be doing!). Overall I think the course is fairly interesting and practical which will hopefully enable me to start extending my “influence” onto other people.

I guess it is time to find someone to test out my “moves” – who knows it might very well be you!

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