【Citi & Finance】We are sucking!

It is a game of loss now, not gain, apparently.

If you ask anyone who has dumped himself into this muddy financial industry last few years, you will probably hear some sobs first, but then followed by some painful rejoice! "Luckily I got in earlier. Can you imagine me struggling to get in now? Oh, man!"Yes, that's the way people talking these day around this circle. Shit is happening everywhere, yet everyone is still hoping(or preying) for the worst to end shortly. Because most of the suckers are still think good of this business, at least in the sense of their future wallets. Every now and then, you can hear some so call "pros" talking about "recessions" and "worst still to come", and clearly the market is listening, at least to some extent. But somehow most of the players are still keeping their loyal faith to this market and just don't want to believe the worst! Everybody is eagerly looking for some relief light breaking out of this cloudy sky. It is strange that when comes to relief and good news, no one needs professionals to guide them anymore, they instantly become professionals and know-how boys themselves!

So it won't be surprise that when Citi reveals its second quarter lost of 2.5b(PDF), everybody is cheering like crazy! Because it is not as bad as they predicted, at least not as bad as Merrill Lynch, who lost 4.6b in the second quarter. Yes, we are all dying, but I am not dying as fast as those other poor guys. Life-like enough it is!

For everyone who has been keeping an eye on this market crunch ever since the start, it is really a big show, without the casting list and plot line! We were all speculating it, predicting it, gossiping about it! First the brokerage, like Bear Stearn, then what? Oh, here there is,  those big investment guys in a scary scale, from ML to UBS, from Credit Swiss to Citi, then comes the mortgage firms like IndyMac, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  Every step along the road, the only voice you won't miss is something like this "XX is too big to fail! FED won't let it happen!" You heard it about Citi, and now Freddie and Fannie. The sad thing is they are damn right over and over again. Is this itself scary? If you know FED won't let that happen, then you can always bid on the reverse and you will never lose! And when I say "bid", I mean "big bid" and "risky bid"! It's like you are in a casino, you dad said you can keep all when you gain, and he will cover all you loss! What will you do? dollar by dollar on black jack? are you stupid? 1 billion on that "Big Six wheel"! I don't know what "Big Sex Wheel" is! but does that matter? Of course it matters! That's why we are in this muddy satuation in the first place, poor risk management, right?

So it is like the Pandora's box(yeah, once again!), or Sauron's name, you just cannot open it or spell it in the first place. It is a tabu! Once applied, it is a heaven without light! and we are those angels with no wings but chains......

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Friday I went to a training session conducted by Citibank Singapore in Mariana Mandarin Hotel. It was boring like hell yet I have to wake up around 6:30am!! But the food is delicious! I am glad that my Citi orientation will also be held there! and you can always find something to entertain yourself, like one of my colleagues and me, we went for some pool game upstairs in Mariana Square after lunch. Not bad at all!!

Leo 在 7/29/2008 12:13:42 AM 说:

媽的。被GFC屏蔽了。暈死個屁的。

---

Leo 在 7/29/2008 12:13:37 AM 说:

媽的。被GFC屏蔽了。暈死個屁的。

---