One of the other drawbacks of working in financial services, was that I couldn't write about what I was seeing and experiencing. That was a strict no-no. If I saw things I didn't agree with, things that struck me as wrong, even dangerous, I couldn't say a damned thing about it.
Even things that were fine, I couldn't write about, because it might be taken the wrong way, and nobody was allowed to speak "out of turn" for fear that MMNFSC might have its reputation compromised. "Don't do/say anything that can show up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal!" was the main guideline. I'm telling you, people were absolutely obsessed about being on the front page of the WSJ. Not exactly paranoid... well, maybe a little.
Anyway, I learned a whole lot in those 10 years in the center of the storm. But what I knew and learned was off-limits to the rest of the world. It was only to be kept in the family. Strictly confidential. Even the potentially helpful things that could have aided investors in making wiser decisions about their investments... the gag rule was in order, because the legal departments (usually more than one) had to review everything that went out to the world that was related to finance and investing, etc. That held true for employees both at the company and in their own private lives and communications.
Now, I'm sure that the rules and regulations make perfect sense when you're talking about one of the planet's largest financial services companies. But it was a serious crimp in my style. Because I like to write. I like to share what I know and what I learn. I like to enlighten other people about stuff -- especially money things. I love money -- I'm not ashamed to say it. So many possibilities exist when you have money... many, many more than if you don't. And it's also one of those areas where people have huge issues -- based (I believe) largely on ignorance and being aggressively misled by people who want to separate them from their money.
I also love investing. I love seeing the numbers move and shift and change, and I love seeing what the market tells us about ourselves as a human race. I love it all. And I love to write about it. A lot.
But so long as I was employed by MMNFSC, there was no way I could do that -- I couldn't talk, couldn't write, couldn't share. Every time someone approached me about some investing topic, I had to not engage with them, saying I was not a financial advisor and I was not qualified to discuss anything with them. Because I was an employee of MMNFSC, people seemed to think that I knew a lot of stuff. And I did. But not the kinds of stuff they thought I did. I knew more about how things worked on the inside. I knew more about how audiences and target consumer markets were identified, how messages were massaged and tweaked to produce better response rates. I knew more about how the inner workings of the system were put together, than any particulars about a certain company or fund or type of investment.
I knew -- long before they became fashionable -- that annuities were a much better idea than stashing your retirement savings in a mutual fund managed by some hot-shot 26-year-old with a secret algorithm and a serious case of ADHD.
But I couldn't say a damned thing about it. Because I wasn't qualified. And because if I said anything, somebody could get into trouble -- me, for one.
Now, however, this is no longer an issue. I'm independent. And I'm delighted about it. I met an independent trader at a party the other night, and just talking with them for 15 minutes reminded me all over again about how much I love my independence, and how much I really love money. I love the markets. I love the freedom that money can bring, and I love the freedom that blogging as an independent (and somewhat anonymous) individual offers me.
It's all good.
Thoughts and insights about buying and selling for independence
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Nice to be out from under
First post for this blog. Feels like it should be a momentous occasion. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time... blog about money and trading and how we buy and sell to get ahead on the world.
One problem, though -- I was employed full-time in the financial services industry. For about ten years -- total -- since the late 1990's. I got in on the virtual ground floor at a division in one of the planet's top financial services companies (which, for various reasons, shall remain nameless). It was a new division that had been formed to bring some activities in-house that had been handled by outside third parties. MMNFSC (Major Multi-National Financial Services Corporation - as my former employer will henceforth be referred to) decided they were sick and tired of shelling out vast sums of money to outside parties, when they could hire folks internally to do the job... have more control over their efforts (and isn't control often what it's all about?)... and whatever money they would be "paying" to these internal people, would be going back into their coffers.
Smart. I only wish they had been as smart about many other things after that point, but that's another post(s) for another time(s).
Anyway, I got into this division, and we kicked some serious ass. I mean, we pretty much revolutionized how MMNFSC did business with a lot of their key customers. We did good work. We made money in the process. We got all tricked out with tons of schwag -- I still have clothing I wear regularly, emblazoned with the logo from that employer, and when I clean out my attic and basement, I periodically come across odds and ends with the logo on them, which were prizes for projects well done.We were well-fed, well-equipped, well-cared-for. And life was reasonably good, if you're into that sort of thing.
Only one problem -- in terms of what I could do, personally, with my own investing and my own financial activities, I was strictly limited. As in Strictly. We had to report all our personal holdings on a regular basis. If we had accounts with other brokerage firms, we had to cancel them and bring our $$$ over to MMNFSC -- unless you had special dispensation from some Invisible Power On High (which some people had - how they managed it, I'm not sure).
Now, I understand the concepts of conflict of interest and company loyalty and keeping the money in the family. But when my co-workers had to report their monthly brokerage earnings, and those earnings were used to adjust their compensation expectations... well, it just seemed pretty un-American to me. Let me get this straight -- I know how to trade and make a nice living on the side, and you're going to limit how much I can earn at my full-time job, effectively devaluing the contribution I make to your company, because I happen to be a talented investor?
Makes no sense at all. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
I guess that's one of those examples of the kinds of decisions that were made that ultimately caused the company to tank and end up farther down the food chain, 15 years after I first started working there. Just plain old poor decision making.
Anyway, the good news is, I'm not there anymore. I was there for about nine years, then I took some time to go off and do some startup work, try out different industries, and broaden my skillset and experiences beyond what MMNFSC had made possible. Then I went back to the fold for about a year, remembered the reasons I'd left in the first place, and now I'm out of there. Permanently. (I'll share the inside scoop on what it's like to work at a fading former powerhouse some other time).
It's been a good year since I left that globally dominant part of my world, and it's taken me about that long to collect myself, regain my footing and remember why I got into that industry in the first place... and why I have left them for good. It's about the money. Not how much they paid me. Not how much they sent my way in the form of performance shares and incentive bonuses. It's about how much they allowed me to make on my own, in my own way, on my own time. I'm a firm believer in the rights of all people to earn their keep in the world -- and more. I believe that every individual has a right, even an obligation, to make a good living, and to have a diverse amount of income sources, not put all their eggs in one basket and hope to high heaven that that basket won't tip over. I believe that there are innumerable opportunities out there for advancement and enrichment, and we can and should have the wherewithall to pursue them, insofar as they don't harm others, and they contribute to the greater good.
Sounds idealistic? Maybe. But I'm an American, and I'm a human being who believes in opportunity and potential, and anything that stands in the way of my -- and others' -- ability to improve themselves in the world... well, that's just wrong.
And any company, even if they are a financial services firm with fiduciary duties, that stands in the way of individuals using their own best judgment on how to get ahead in the world (like forcing them to close all accounts with competing brokerage houses, and requiring them to report how much money they make through diverse channels), is not the kind of place I want to work.
Even if there are many, many very good reasons why a financial services company would make these requirements, I have no interest in being bogged down in their machinery. I have money to make. Opportunities to pursue. And being out on my own is probably the best thing for me.
So, that's where I am - out on my own, out from under. Freed up from that Big Brother-y gaze always peering over my shoulder, watching my every move. I'm free at last, and looking forward to what the investment world has to offer. I can't say I'm going to get rich overnight. And I will probably not share all my secrets for how I get where I'm going -- that's for you to find out for yourself. But I do intend to follow up on opportunities that look promising. And not let anything hold me back.
It's all wide open now. And that's very cool. Even better, I get to write about it all.
One problem, though -- I was employed full-time in the financial services industry. For about ten years -- total -- since the late 1990's. I got in on the virtual ground floor at a division in one of the planet's top financial services companies (which, for various reasons, shall remain nameless). It was a new division that had been formed to bring some activities in-house that had been handled by outside third parties. MMNFSC (Major Multi-National Financial Services Corporation - as my former employer will henceforth be referred to) decided they were sick and tired of shelling out vast sums of money to outside parties, when they could hire folks internally to do the job... have more control over their efforts (and isn't control often what it's all about?)... and whatever money they would be "paying" to these internal people, would be going back into their coffers.
Smart. I only wish they had been as smart about many other things after that point, but that's another post(s) for another time(s).
Anyway, I got into this division, and we kicked some serious ass. I mean, we pretty much revolutionized how MMNFSC did business with a lot of their key customers. We did good work. We made money in the process. We got all tricked out with tons of schwag -- I still have clothing I wear regularly, emblazoned with the logo from that employer, and when I clean out my attic and basement, I periodically come across odds and ends with the logo on them, which were prizes for projects well done.We were well-fed, well-equipped, well-cared-for. And life was reasonably good, if you're into that sort of thing.
Only one problem -- in terms of what I could do, personally, with my own investing and my own financial activities, I was strictly limited. As in Strictly. We had to report all our personal holdings on a regular basis. If we had accounts with other brokerage firms, we had to cancel them and bring our $$$ over to MMNFSC -- unless you had special dispensation from some Invisible Power On High (which some people had - how they managed it, I'm not sure).
Now, I understand the concepts of conflict of interest and company loyalty and keeping the money in the family. But when my co-workers had to report their monthly brokerage earnings, and those earnings were used to adjust their compensation expectations... well, it just seemed pretty un-American to me. Let me get this straight -- I know how to trade and make a nice living on the side, and you're going to limit how much I can earn at my full-time job, effectively devaluing the contribution I make to your company, because I happen to be a talented investor?
Makes no sense at all. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
I guess that's one of those examples of the kinds of decisions that were made that ultimately caused the company to tank and end up farther down the food chain, 15 years after I first started working there. Just plain old poor decision making.
Anyway, the good news is, I'm not there anymore. I was there for about nine years, then I took some time to go off and do some startup work, try out different industries, and broaden my skillset and experiences beyond what MMNFSC had made possible. Then I went back to the fold for about a year, remembered the reasons I'd left in the first place, and now I'm out of there. Permanently. (I'll share the inside scoop on what it's like to work at a fading former powerhouse some other time).
It's been a good year since I left that globally dominant part of my world, and it's taken me about that long to collect myself, regain my footing and remember why I got into that industry in the first place... and why I have left them for good. It's about the money. Not how much they paid me. Not how much they sent my way in the form of performance shares and incentive bonuses. It's about how much they allowed me to make on my own, in my own way, on my own time. I'm a firm believer in the rights of all people to earn their keep in the world -- and more. I believe that every individual has a right, even an obligation, to make a good living, and to have a diverse amount of income sources, not put all their eggs in one basket and hope to high heaven that that basket won't tip over. I believe that there are innumerable opportunities out there for advancement and enrichment, and we can and should have the wherewithall to pursue them, insofar as they don't harm others, and they contribute to the greater good.
Sounds idealistic? Maybe. But I'm an American, and I'm a human being who believes in opportunity and potential, and anything that stands in the way of my -- and others' -- ability to improve themselves in the world... well, that's just wrong.
And any company, even if they are a financial services firm with fiduciary duties, that stands in the way of individuals using their own best judgment on how to get ahead in the world (like forcing them to close all accounts with competing brokerage houses, and requiring them to report how much money they make through diverse channels), is not the kind of place I want to work.
Even if there are many, many very good reasons why a financial services company would make these requirements, I have no interest in being bogged down in their machinery. I have money to make. Opportunities to pursue. And being out on my own is probably the best thing for me.
So, that's where I am - out on my own, out from under. Freed up from that Big Brother-y gaze always peering over my shoulder, watching my every move. I'm free at last, and looking forward to what the investment world has to offer. I can't say I'm going to get rich overnight. And I will probably not share all my secrets for how I get where I'm going -- that's for you to find out for yourself. But I do intend to follow up on opportunities that look promising. And not let anything hold me back.
It's all wide open now. And that's very cool. Even better, I get to write about it all.
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