Rainy days and mondays always get me down

Today was the first time I visited the Philippine Stock Exchange in Makati. It was a little tour that a group of around 20 people attended, including our boss, Michael Bouley. Benta pa, we had to take a cab from RCBC to PSE because it was raining and so we had to go in batches of 4. Apparently, most of us left our things in the office, not anticipating taking a cab, I had around 27 pesos in my pocket (change from my lunch purchase) and the only other money in my batch was Razmin's 500 and 20-peso bills. Obviously, the cabbie had no change for 500 so when the meter reached 47 pesos we had to stop and we were only at the old Makati Stock Exchange Building at that time. HAHA. We had to walk to our real destination. What's funny is that another group stopped where our cab stopped thinking we were already there. (Di nila alam we just didn't have the money to go further. wahaha).

Anyway, comparing the exchange we know (most commonly, NYSE) to our local PSE was indeed contrasting. We initially thought there was a trading halt when we came because the floor was too silent, people were reading the paper, a handful were texting, some were on the phones but the general atmosphere was a bit relaxed.. like no trades were happening. �Guess we all had that idea that people were supposed to have public outcries instead of just seeing them sit on their desks, faces wrinkled from trying to fathom what else there was they could do out of boredom.

And so we had a short lecture by one of their officials regarding the history, operations and goals of the PSE and I know most of us had to fight off falling asleep because it was loaded with data we didn't really need and plus we've all been fresh from out evening shifts which did not help our attempt at attentiveness. What was interesting though was the Q&A portion after the lecture. I understand that having been trained for Series 7 and 63, the PSE operations would seem different I just found it funny that when my boss asked what order types PSE had, the official (I can't even remember his name) only came up with "market" order. And he didn't even sound too sure. Another question thrown was "are accounts placed on restriction when they violate trading rules, such as free-riding?" At this point the official looked really perplexed and asked what a free-riding violation was. 

Maybe it was called a different term in PSE but after being explained by one of my colleagues, I would have thought he had already gotten the idea. But then he says something devoid of a direct answer adn moves on to the next question. One more thing I cannot forget is how he'd blatantly say that corruption could be happening as we speak, as brokers could give leeway to their clients, such as having them pay for trades by the end of settlement instead of having funds to use prior to placing a trade, and how the "kumpare system" was possible. I wanted to shrink under my seat. Our boss was right there in the room and he had to concretize the fact that the trading system was not reliable. Maybe he was taken aback with the deluge of questions. Maybe he got nervous? I dunno. You can't present the operations side of business if you're not prepared to answer a couple of general questions. To say I was fairly disappointed is the biggest understatement of the day. 

Will I ever work in PSE if given the chance? Probably not because the first impression (the working atmosphere, the lecture, the system) was something that would not entice me into changing careers. What we face on a daily basis as brokers isn't even half what their brokers get to encounter, I'd bet --free-riding violations and all.