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Red Joker Blog Updates: Back Home (+ Private Jet)

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    Red Joker Blog Updates: Back Home (+ Private Jet)

    So I’m back home after a long 10 weeks in Philadelphia. The course had positives and negatives but was overall just really long. There were 11 in the group; 5 from the main Bala office (just outside Philadelphia), 4 from Chicago and 2 from Dublin. There was a poker tournament throughout the 10 weeks with a mix of stud, razz, stud 8, limit hold’em, no limit hold’em and Omaha 8. I think I ran somewhat badly for most of it but in the last week I was joint 1st, had a nice up day and managed to hold on for the win. I usually don’t like playing poker that much (thinking about it is far more interesting) but actually enjoyed playing the tournament.They put us in the Homewood Suites by Hilton which was pretty depressing, the dinners were inedible and the internet was like something from the 80s. It would have been better if there was no internet, when it’s there you want to use it but it took an eternity for pages to load which was just super frustrating.The instructors took us out to dinner one night and they gave us the company credit card afterwards. We went to R2L and had Dom Perignon and some other $300/$400 bottles of champagne. Pretty funny to have a group of 23 – 26 year olds come in and blow a couple grand in a few hours. We got the credit card another two times, went to R2L again and then went to Dave and Busters to play unlimited games and bet on it.The first 4 weeks of class we mainly had lectures, mostly on option theory. We had talks from people in the various departments and desks in the firm which was easily the most useful part of the whole course. I went to Atlantic City the first weekend, reconfirmed that live 1-2 is the most soul crushing experience ever and finished up about $500. I went to New York as well; spent most of the time in Macy’s getting Christmas presents but went to Time Square as well. We had planned to go back to do some more sightseeing but never got around to it. Some of the heads of the various departments were going over to the Dublin office for the weekend to go to the Christmas party. Dinner, free bar and putting everybody up in a hotel, recession isn’t all bad I guess! Anyway, two of the people who were supposed to be going dropped out so me and the other guy from Dublin were offered the seats. We assumed that since some of the directors and partners were going that we’d probably be flying first class, instead they took a fucking private jet!!Image: http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/911/navyg51.jpg (http://img200.imageshack.us/i/navyg51.jpg/)Image: http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/8...terchinoai.jpg (http://img713.imageshack.us/i/picfor...hinoai.jpg/)It was ridiculous. No queues, no security checks, we showed our passports to the pilot and went straight on. There was a bed in the back and a buffet with cheese, fruit, sushi, etc. Everybody else went to sleep but I was like a 12 year old and way too excited to sleep. I spent a lot of the time in the cockpit chatting with the pilots. I saw Venus rising, asked them to dim the control panel so I could see the Milky Way and watched the Sun rise. I was feeling hungry around 3am so the air hostess fixed me up with some brie and crackers, tastes better on a private jet obv . Pretty sweet to see how the rich live, it could definitely spoil you if you let it but at the same time it’s incredibly motivating. The Christmas party was a lot of fun as well.We had a week off over Christmas so I was flew back for that, no private jet this time though . A couple days after I got back a pipe burst next door due to the frost and our entire ground floor was flooded. We had to live upstairs for a few days, then the power was cut as well so we rented an apartment for a week while the landlord got everything fixed up.For the last 6 weeks we had mock trading which is a trading game (I’ve outlined it in previous blogs). The first week and a half was “out loud” which is supposed to simulate the old style trading pits. However, we had to continually update all the options which was a little annoying since it’s mainly just delta adjusting when the stock moves and is something that traders never had to do in the real pits; if somebody wanted a market they’d just re-quote it rather than constantly updating an entire options surface. After that we had electronic mock which was far more useful since the computer would take care of all the pricing and it was up to the trader to adjust all the parameters based on market flow. However, pretty much any explanation that we gave for doing a trade would be immediately shot down and criticized by the instructors. The instructors frequently contradicted themselves and each other but never actually disagreed with each other which was absolutely ridiculous. If you had a group of traders discussing something as complex as an options trade or strategy you’d probably get as many different opinions as there are traders in the discussion. Despite claims that they wanted us to disagree with them we figured out after a week or two that there was only downside to it and generally kept quiet unless asked.They took us to a couple of basketball games; we had a suite for the Sixers – Bulls game and the Sixers – Grizzlies game. Went to a shooting range and had a great time. Fired a 9mm, Colt .45, revolver and an assault rifle (it was either an M16 or M33, not sure), Also went to Pats and Genos to try the cheesesteaks, I thought Pats was better. While we’re on the subject of food, this will probably be a little controversial, but food in America is pretty awful. The only way I could eat healthily was to cook in the hotel and any type of quality food was pretty expensive. I’d imagine it would be almost impossible to eat well if you didn’t have a decent income. Some of the places that would be considered take-away in Ireland, like Subway, are considered “good” restaurants. It’s crazy how many people eat out regularly, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple generations a pretty large proportion of American grandmothers won’t know how to cook, something that would basically be unimaginable in Europe or Asia.Anyway, the education program is given a lot of importance in the company and, while it’s definitely useful, it could be way more efficient. 10 weeks of not doing anything productive or feeling like I was really achieving anything is pretty tough. The only thing that prevented it from being completely unbearable was hanging out with the other people in the group. Most of the Bala people kept to themselves which was pretty annoying; they wouldn’t play the poker tournament after work, didn’t really go anywhere with the group, etc. On the second last day we had reviews and one of the group was fired. It was a pretty big surprise but in a strange way it actually reaffirmed my faith in the company, in spite of the stuff they put us through. The guy didn’t improve at all and put in almost no effort. Even though you still have to put up with some nonsense and office politics, I have to believe that it’s a million times better than at most companies.My review went very well, all positive comments. I’m going to be on the commodities/power desk but I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing yet. I’m taking a week off to spend with the family but I’m looking forward to getting back and doing something productive.

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