SMU's MSc. in Wealth Management

My thoughts about MWM so far.. 13 Jan 2013.

 I am currently in the 3rd study block of my MSc. In Wealth Management course offered by SMU, SFI, WMI and Yale.

This is a highly leveraged course, meaning to say that you as the candidate will be subjected to extensive learning leverage by:

1) Working with your peers during projects as some of them are existing industry practitioners

2) Learning from your lecturers who teach you their academic knowledge based on their personal professional experiences in trading, investment advisory, fund management.. etc etc.

 3) When SMU undergrads take 13weeks to complete a module, you as a post graduate have only 2 weeks to do the same, if not more, of a similar module.

 This is not a course for everybody. If you expect to come in being 100% spoon fed, to be slowly allowed to assimilate and understand financial literacy – you are in the wrong course. It is until today that I started to fully appreciate the true value of such a course.

I am so thankful that I took up my Course Director’s suggestion (Prof Francis) and decided to take up the Chartered Investment Alternative Analyst ® (CAIA) level 1 exam that is due in 21 March 2013 because it made me appreciate everything I have learned thus far!

My advice to anyone who is thinking of coming for this Masters program:

1) Don’t short change yourself. 

 You paid good money for this course, and the ONLY way to get the best out of this course is to read ahead. You MUST read before your study modules. Even if you are an experience banker, your job most definitely will not cover every single aspect of this course. For example, CFA® does not touch on anything on Hedge Funds. CAIA® does not touch on anything on fixed income and public equity valuation analysis.

 2) Not a guaranteed ticket to a job: 

 Getting this Masters will not guarantee you a job. Your employers want to see how much value add you can give to their organization, and this will come with real skill. Real skill is derived from actively practicing what you have learned from this course. Your Masters on paper is only a certificate that allows you to click the ‘’apply’’ button on that job portal. Nothing more.

3) Practice makes perfect: 

After every module, I would start relating the theory that I learned to real life examples. For example:

- Olam vs. Muddy waters: Famous accounting dispute case. I have ZERO background in accounting, but I was able to appreciate and have a decent conversation with my work colleagues and bosses on why Carson Block is seemingly correct.

- Bloomberg: As a former RM, I was assisted by Treasury Specialists and Investment Advisors who would generate charts for me. I started spending a lot of time on Bloomberg after my 1st study module and started to understand how charts were constructed and why they are used. Trust me; you MUST learn Bloomberg so long as the country you are in uses it. It really allows you to understand everything that is taught in this course and the research reports/fact sheets that you read while you are at work. And I literally self-taught myself Bloomberg. I would advise anyone to grab hold of any research report and start doing reverse engineering. For example, how does the U S Economic Sentiment Indicator (Bloomberg code: CESIUSD INDEX) give you an indication S&P 500 (Bloomberg code: SPX INDEX) would perform. I would derive EVERY single graph I see on research reports and attempt to reproduce the exact same graph on Bloomberg by myself.

4)Don’t be a freeloader 

 Everybody is spending the same 12months on this course, so don’t expect to be a leech without giving anything in return. This is a very small industry. If you have the intention to bastard your project group mates by not contributing to assignments , please don’t come to this course. I can 100% assure you that your bad name will be made known to the entire class. Good luck in seeking employment after this.

5) What should I do if I have no financial background? 

My best advice to you if you are planning to come in for the new July intake is to enrol for the CFA® level 1 exam NOW. I have not studied the CFA® myself, but I have looked through the material when I was deciding between the CFA® and the CAIA®. The CFA® level 1 is an excellent financial literacy guide. There is no value in reading random books to prepare for this course because you have absolutely no clue of which direction to take! I will recommend the CAIA® level 1 exam for anyone who already has a good sense of traditional investments, and is looking to prepare for the Alternative Investment part of this course. I find the CAIA® a huge value add to my financial literacy because of the relevance this course brings in comparison to the actual market.

 I personally will not recommend you to take the CAIA® if you have no financial background because I am in the view that you need to have a good understanding of traditional investment asset classes (read: public equity, bonds, mutual funds) before you can start touching on Alternative Investments (read: hedge funds, private equity, commodities, real estate, structured products).

6) Clear your misconceptions about salary  

No, an entry level RM does not earn SGD$8K -SGD$12K a month for example. You WILL NOT get this type of salary if you are graduating with this Masters and are new to the financial industry. If you still think that you can command this type of salary just by graduating from this course alone, you are in the wrong course.

7) What about internships? 

My class has a 100% internship placement thanks to WMI’s network for those who sought it. Make the best out of your internship. Listen to conversations from your colleagues when they are talking to their clients/bosses. Google any term you might not know (eg: you are looking at a 2-bagger on your principal. What is the max drawdown you are willing to take?) Fully utilize any systems your company may have (with permission from your boss of course), eg Bloomberg. You must take ownership of your own future. Don’t expect success to drop from the sky.


8) Sleep

Last but not least, if you are someone that needs 12hrs of sleep to function... hah good luck. On average, I sleep around 4-5 hours a day when I am on this course because there is simply too much to do!

Still one of the best times ..

Finally decided to go visit Wildcards again after going missing for so long. Really miss the team!

Probably the first ever Paper Doll formation in Singapore too!

满江红 - 岳飞

满江红
岳飞 

怒发冲冠，凭阑处、潇潇雨歇。抬望眼、仰天长啸，壮怀激烈。三十功名尘与土，八千里路云和月。莫等闲，白了少年头，空悲切。
靖康耻，犹未雪；臣子恨，何时灭。驾长车，踏破贺兰山缺。壮志饥餐胡虏肉，笑谈渴饮匈奴血。待从头、收拾旧山河，朝天阙。

source: http://www.thn21.com/Article/shi/5968.html

My Chinese language teacher from Fuhua Primary School used to teach our entire class how to sing this song. This is the value of education. I still can remember how this song sounds like until today! 

chaang goes back to school!

Yes, you heard it right. Ah beng is going back to school!

2011/2012 has been a very epic season for me. During this period I:

1) Decided to change my lifestyle completely.
2) Cut off alcohol intake by 70%
3) Completely quit smoking as of 25 April 2012
4) Took my GMAT for the 2nd time after my horrible 1st attempt
5) Got enrolled in SMU's MSc in Wealth Mgmt course. 
6) Decided to be an assistant coach for NTU Hall 2's cheer squad
7) Handed over Wildcards administration to the new generation after completing my dream clean sweep at SNCC 2012.
8) Decided to join a totally non-cheerleading related CCA as an ordinary member (more details in future)
9) Decided that I as a Chinese should learn more about my roots. After interacting with a few of my classmates from China, I finally have the urge to want to know more about Chinese history. lol. So I shall start recording everything that I have learned during my 1 year Masters course in SMU... starting today!

One of the famous poems from  曹植 

“煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。本是同根生，相煎何太急”

这句话出自于曹植的《七步诗》 
原为六句：“煮豆持作羹，漉豉以为汁，萁在釜下燃，豆在釜中泣。本是同根生，相煎何太急。”后来《漫叟诗话》和《三国演义》把它改为四句：“煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。本是同根生，相煎何太急？” 
意思是说：曹植的大哥想夺权篡位，而父亲这时生在病中，不能主持大政，而曹丕身为大哥，理应代替父亲。可是父亲一但归天，而父亲特别溺爱曹植，大哥生怕自己的皇位让弟弟夺去，便想找时机除掉这棵障碍草。正好有一天所有的大臣都在议事，曹丕就想在各大臣的面前让曹植出丑也好借机除掉他。于是他就对曹植说：听说弟弟被所有的人都封为才子，那么我也给你出一道题，命你在七步之内作出一首诗，如果作出不来，就别怪我这个做大哥的不顾手足之情（含义是要杀了他）。”曹植当时非常愤怒，而当他走到第七步时，曹丕以为他作不出来了，还没来得及说话，曹植就把诗读了出来，以就是上面的诗。 
最后曹植离开了他的故乡（相传）

source: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/10172422

5 rep max!

Judge a book by its cover. Go ahead

I decided to change

I have finally decided to keep a photo blog to update myself of my transformation process.

10 July 2011, Bali, 83kg and very overweight! you can literally see the fats surrounding my entire tummy/lower back! Not to mention a beer belly -.-

During sometime in Aug 2011 thanks to a learning experience, I decided to change.

18 Jan 2012, Singapore, 71kg

I actually lost close to 12 Kg in the first 12 weeks of my training program. I have been at 71 kg ever since.

What I did:

1) Cardio
- Committed to running at least twice a week. min 20 min each time. I only focused on the duration of the run, not the intensity. I also made it a point to run on an elevated platform when I was on the treadmill to save my knees/ankles.

2) Gym
- Committed to gymming 3 times a week, covering major muscles: back, chest and legs on separate occasions.

3) Diet
- Increased my eating frequency from 3 times a day to 5 times a day.
- Ate oatmeal and egg whites for breakfast
- Diet consisted of mostly white meat (chicken and fish)
- Halved my carbo intake. I used to eat one bowl of rice for lunch/dinner. Now I only eat half a bowl.

4) Supplementation
- Protein - 100% whey gold class from ON
- Pre work out - Amino Energy from ON
- Glutamine - from ON
- Joint repair supplements
- Omega 3 fish oil

5) Full body massages.

This is a must have, because the weight loss and hard training over the past few months took quite a heavy toll on my body. Sports massages really aid you in the recovery/reconstruction process. I strongly recommend this thai massage place at 39 Jalan Besar. Very good!

My Target: 69kg by 24 March 2012!