19
May
2017
Thoughts from the back office
In most investment banks “the back office” is where the lawyers, accountants, settlements, programmers, legal and compliance sit. It’s the least glamourous place to be in the bank. The tendency is to see “the back office” as overhead. Not a productive place to be, because it doesn’t generate any money for the bank. At Seymour... Read More
4
May
2017
Dumb money
A couple of my friends asked for my thoughts on Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). For instance, one said: “I went into a bank, and they tried to sell me this funny derivative. It’s a bank, so I know what they are trying to sell me is good for them, not for me. How do ETFs work?”... Read More
17
Apr
2017
Same balancesheet, different stories
The key to all story telling is to give your audience what they want, but not the way they expect…Robert McKee I like stories. They are the way we interpret contradictory information and understand different perspectives. If you want to change someone’s mind, psychology research suggests that appeals to reasoned argument don’t work. Think of all... Read More
7
Apr
2017
My friend used to run Glencore
After writing this blog post on the Glencore IPO, a friend got in touch. Let’s just call her “Mel in IT” because she used to program databases and excel spreadsheets at a company I worked at. And she used to run Glencore. She reminded me of what happened, how she came to be running a company... Read More