I don't usually attack journalists, column writers, newscasters, and other bloggers, but this one really pissed me off:
Floyd Norris.
Or maybe just his article.
His attempt to paint a rosy picture of the current market crisis is distasteful, to say the least.
The one line in his seemingly well-researched and impartial entry (which really is just a piece of hypocritical BS) that really presses my buttons is this :
Sure knows how to rub it in!
I love my country, although I really can't stand the weather, and the generally cowardly, selfish people that populate this island. Hence it pains me to see well-educated young men and women joining the unknowing elderly and the less investment-savvy in the suing of what has generally been accepted as our national bank, after it sold them structural Lehman Brother mini bonds that of course have become worthless today.
It's not news that banks do cross-selling and up-selling of products, and most are aware of the risk involved in putting their money into instruments that promise the POTENTIAL of giving you something that's more attractive than the miserable interest offered by fixed deposit accounts.
Relationship managers and other banking personnels have been blamed for unethical selling. Based on my observation, with the exception of a few, most are just doing their job.
I have seen blogs suggesting that their commissions be recalled, and I think that's just atrocious.
The reason that RMs are getting a commission is because they are doing jobs that many people won't do - including me.
Seriously, I'll rather do lowly manual work than to have to SELL, or get out of bed at an ungodly 3am to get my private banker boss' biggest client SALMON SUSHI (Real life story retold by D, who is acquainted with the poor GIRL who crawled out of bed to get sushi).
I've been a relationship manager. I quit because I just couldn't sell anything other than DCIs (currency-related structured product).
I couldn't sell structured bonds, mutual funds and other highly complicated structured products.
The concept and ROI structure of any instrument that I can't reproduce in writing without having to refer to the promotional material and factsheets, I don't sell.
If I have to memorize scripts to get the benefit of a certain product across, I don't sell.
Whenever my clients asked me enough questions to convince me that they have no idea that the things I was up-selling weren't merely fixed deposit accounts with very attractive interest rates (if such FD exists, I'll take my money out of my milo tin now and dump them all there), I moved on to my other prospects.
I wasn't in the business of EDUCATING my clients on investment matters and such. I was a salesperson. I sell. I don't care what the sales experts out there are saying about EDUCATING customers on what one's selling. If your customers know nothing about the product you want to sell them, either bring your business elsewhere, or make sure you give them a test at the end of the crash course you just rammed down their throat, and you don't sell to them unless they pass the test with flying colors.
Having said the above, I have to say that many people DO know what they are buying. But they will still come after you when their investment drop 0.01% in a day. You can make them sign a zillion forms - which I thought in it itself would be enough warning that they are NOT buying candies - and tell them a zillion times that returns is not guaranteed, and they would still breathe down your neck when they are not raking in 20 - 40% profits in a month.
These are people who are afraid to take responsibility for their own finances. They rely on others to make difficult decisions for them. When things go wrong, at least they have someone else to blame. Some resort to hounding their relationship managers until the bank offers them some sort of "goodies" as compensation.
*&%$%&*(#$&(!
I personally know many relationship managers who are good, honest people who invested in the products that they sell themselves. Some of them simply don't have the luxury of selling only products that they understand, because they are pressured to meet the quota set for the sale of a certain "flavor of the month". 2 months of not meeting your quota will invite some serious humiliation that's broadcast via the ever so efficient electronic memo, and 2 more months of underperformance should get you fired.
I had the choice to leave the system, because I don't have a family to feed.
For my male colleagues, they have expensive wives and children to maintain. If they leave their high paying job to explore other less lucrative ventures, they could lose their family.
This is the beginning of a very difficult time ahead. People will get uglier, and family bonds will weaken. Sad, but true. Singaporeans are practical people.
Money is indeed the root of all evil.
And the greenback is the MOST EVIL!!!
But I'm still going to trade the US market of course. I can't see the link between what I'm posting here with my trading activity. I'm not philosophical when it comes to trading. I'm not even patriotic.
Well, the best I can do is to keep SHORTING the NQ.
Ha.
Floyd Norris.
Or maybe just his article.
His attempt to paint a rosy picture of the current market crisis is distasteful, to say the least.
The one line in his seemingly well-researched and impartial entry (which really is just a piece of hypocritical BS) that really presses my buttons is this :
You will note that the United States is among the best performers. Don’t you feel better now?
Sure knows how to rub it in!
I love my country, although I really can't stand the weather, and the generally cowardly, selfish people that populate this island. Hence it pains me to see well-educated young men and women joining the unknowing elderly and the less investment-savvy in the suing of what has generally been accepted as our national bank, after it sold them structural Lehman Brother mini bonds that of course have become worthless today.
It's not news that banks do cross-selling and up-selling of products, and most are aware of the risk involved in putting their money into instruments that promise the POTENTIAL of giving you something that's more attractive than the miserable interest offered by fixed deposit accounts.
Relationship managers and other banking personnels have been blamed for unethical selling. Based on my observation, with the exception of a few, most are just doing their job.
I have seen blogs suggesting that their commissions be recalled, and I think that's just atrocious.
The reason that RMs are getting a commission is because they are doing jobs that many people won't do - including me.
Seriously, I'll rather do lowly manual work than to have to SELL, or get out of bed at an ungodly 3am to get my private banker boss' biggest client SALMON SUSHI (Real life story retold by D, who is acquainted with the poor GIRL who crawled out of bed to get sushi).
I've been a relationship manager. I quit because I just couldn't sell anything other than DCIs (currency-related structured product).
I couldn't sell structured bonds, mutual funds and other highly complicated structured products.
The concept and ROI structure of any instrument that I can't reproduce in writing without having to refer to the promotional material and factsheets, I don't sell.
If I have to memorize scripts to get the benefit of a certain product across, I don't sell.
Whenever my clients asked me enough questions to convince me that they have no idea that the things I was up-selling weren't merely fixed deposit accounts with very attractive interest rates (if such FD exists, I'll take my money out of my milo tin now and dump them all there), I moved on to my other prospects.
I wasn't in the business of EDUCATING my clients on investment matters and such. I was a salesperson. I sell. I don't care what the sales experts out there are saying about EDUCATING customers on what one's selling. If your customers know nothing about the product you want to sell them, either bring your business elsewhere, or make sure you give them a test at the end of the crash course you just rammed down their throat, and you don't sell to them unless they pass the test with flying colors.
Having said the above, I have to say that many people DO know what they are buying. But they will still come after you when their investment drop 0.01% in a day. You can make them sign a zillion forms - which I thought in it itself would be enough warning that they are NOT buying candies - and tell them a zillion times that returns is not guaranteed, and they would still breathe down your neck when they are not raking in 20 - 40% profits in a month.
These are people who are afraid to take responsibility for their own finances. They rely on others to make difficult decisions for them. When things go wrong, at least they have someone else to blame. Some resort to hounding their relationship managers until the bank offers them some sort of "goodies" as compensation.
*&%$%&*(#$&(!
I personally know many relationship managers who are good, honest people who invested in the products that they sell themselves. Some of them simply don't have the luxury of selling only products that they understand, because they are pressured to meet the quota set for the sale of a certain "flavor of the month". 2 months of not meeting your quota will invite some serious humiliation that's broadcast via the ever so efficient electronic memo, and 2 more months of underperformance should get you fired.
I had the choice to leave the system, because I don't have a family to feed.
For my male colleagues, they have expensive wives and children to maintain. If they leave their high paying job to explore other less lucrative ventures, they could lose their family.
This is the beginning of a very difficult time ahead. People will get uglier, and family bonds will weaken. Sad, but true. Singaporeans are practical people.
Money is indeed the root of all evil.
And the greenback is the MOST EVIL!!!
But I'm still going to trade the US market of course. I can't see the link between what I'm posting here with my trading activity. I'm not philosophical when it comes to trading. I'm not even patriotic.
Well, the best I can do is to keep SHORTING the NQ.
Ha.
6 comments:
Hi Jules,
I agree with your anger about such articles and I like your defense of sales person, BUT the most I like is your conclusion (bottomline) that it doesn't matter when you trade. This is what every trader should incorporate into his/her neurons permanently - that don't be affected by what you "feel emotionally". Trading is emotionless thing and we have to leave all our philosophies aside when entering, remaining in and exiting a trade.
A Note: A sales person is just like a messenger, AND, you don't shoot the messenger, esp when you could avoid the product had you done some basic research.
:-) Thank you, Harry!
Was just talking to an ex-colleague from the bank. They are having a hard time, as expected.
Totally agree with you that everyone should do their own homework before buying anything. Again, most don't do it because taking responsibility for anything in their life is simply too daunting a task them.
Our life has gotten so good compared to our grandparents' that we take everything as our entitlement and our right. It's like running into a grisly bear in a forest, and instead of running, you start giving the animal a lecture that it's wrong to eat a human, and that it should go after the deers and the hares....
Jules,
Having done sales (not financial products), I can definately say that sales is the hardest job and the least appreciated. Nobody likes you! You have to have very tough skin.
That being said, there clearly is a need for salespeople (or they wouldn't be paid to do their job).
Yes, we now live in an entitlement culture. What our entitlement reaps is that the very few smart and wealthy folks will rule the Sheeple class. Now the Sheeple can bleat and bleat all they want (and hire lawyers), but the smart and rich will pull the wool over their eyes every time (and they can afford more and better lawyers).
Moral of the story? Don't be one of the Sheeple :)
LT
And that's why I choose to be jobless, LT.
When I first gave up the security offered by the public sector to join the bank, it was in the hope that I would start picking up the skills I'd need to survive in the real world.
The entitlement culture is rampant in the public sector, as well as in many big companies in the private sector.
When I left both the civil service and the bank, the market was still very much in denial, and I was offered what I'd call "glam" jobs which I didn't hesitate to turn down.
I have had the privilege of tasted extreme poverty (well, I was penniless and I owed a whole year's college fees) - I was homeless during Edmonton's cold winter, a friend who turned out to be an SOB wanted to sell me to some guy (who offered to pay me 30k CAD to keep him company for a month), an armed drunkard broke into my apartment on the 22nd floor and terrorized me and had me running down 22 storeys with him chasing after me, all coz I had only a 100 dollars in my wallet (which D had quietly slipped in before he went back to his apartment) and he was pissed.
And there were more.
So much happened in that year that I turned 21, coz I was without a penny.
My mum had refused to send me any money after I gave her the whole proceed from the sale of the house in Canada my Dad had bought me. Stupid me didn't expect my own mother to do that to me!
Anyway, I survived. I lasted another 3 years in Edmonton until I graduated.
I learnt the most important lesson in my life: Don't ever be at the mercy of anyone. I'd rather die of hunger and cold than to have to live a sorry life of having to trust and follow the lead of another human being.
from the Amplifying Bible, Tim. 6: 10 "For the love of money (and all it buys) placed before the love of God (in reality) is the root of all kinds of evil."
just a slight correction if you are interest. ps. D was with you that far back?, what a guy!
Hey Cory :-)
How have you been?
Thanks for the correction :-) But I still think the greenback is evil LOL!
Yes, D and I went back a long way :-)
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