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We are launching Friday Only Club!

Oscar de la Renta chose not to show at New York Fashion Week and instead streamed on Amazon. Is Amazon a suitable forum for a luxury brand? CEO Alex Bolen said, "I'm not sure. But we have to experiment with new ways to get our story out." https://lnkd.in/g4rZMxyb We launched our funds when Covid started and with the halt in travel and tough fund raising environment for emerging managers, we focused on performance and experimented with new ways to reach out to allocators, namely Linkedin posts and YouTube videos which can now be binge-watched on  www.quantflix.com . True, some people say that with the positive fund returns last year for both our long-only equity and multi-strategy funds, and the China fund outperforming its benchmark by its annualized double-digit aim, it was expected that we would pass the $100m mark. But when times are bad, most new investment monies went to well-known funds that are much bigger with a marketing budget that we cannot afford. So every lit...

What is the Answer to Life?

The number 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything, according to the supercomputer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's amazing how Artificial Intelligence can understand human life better than ourselves.

Recently, I traveled for a client meeting for the first time since the pandemic and found myself having to explain to clients "yes I have done similar transactions at JPMorgan", "before New York I was in investment banking in Tokyo". Rather than rattle off even more of my experience to prove I know my stuff, I uttered the magic words "I'm Forty-Two."

This proved to be the Ultimate Answer to all their doubts. The immediate comment I received was "You look much younger" and I felt an immediate change in my street cred level. I could literally hear the Super Mario Bros Power Up sound effect in my head.

If you are Forty-Two, you've been through Y2K, pets.com, Sep 11, subprime crisis, GFC. You know that tech firms can go to zero, you know there is something called inflation. When I went to college there was the Asian Financial Crisis so I understand what currency devaluation and recession is like; I got a bond-free scholarship from the top public university on the west coast just in case my father, who was doing substantial business in Thailand and Indonesia at that time, could not afford to pay for my Ivy League school fees.

Being 42 should also get me sponsorship for the products I've used dutifully for the past 20+ years - can I be the face of some coffee or beer company with the slogan "Drink Up for High Sharpe"?

Have a GAO Day 👍
(means everything, anything, and nothing at the same time)

#fortytwo #galaxy #lifeadvice #womeninbusiness #inflation #recession #artificialintelligence





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We are launching Friday Only Club!

Oscar de la Renta chose not to show at New York Fashion Week and instead streamed on Amazon. Is Amazon a suitable forum for a luxury brand? CEO Alex Bolen said, "I'm not sure. But we have to experiment with new ways to get our story out." https://lnkd.in/g4rZMxyb We launched our funds when Covid started and with the halt in travel and tough fund raising environment for emerging managers, we focused on performance and experimented with new ways to reach out to allocators, namely Linkedin posts and YouTube videos which can now be binge-watched on  www.quantflix.com . True, some people say that with the positive fund returns last year for both our long-only equity and multi-strategy funds, and the China fund outperforming its benchmark by its annualized double-digit aim, it was expected that we would pass the $100m mark. But when times are bad, most new investment monies went to well-known funds that are much bigger with a marketing budget that we cannot afford. So every lit...

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The First Edition of Friday Only Club!

  I got a latte art portrait of me today. It's not a "big deal" but shows the barista cares (at 9am in the morning). (No comments on how I look, especially my Bombastic Hair*, unless you look better with no Photoshop in your mid-40s with no makeup). Maybe some would say this is just business, the cafe is trying to get you to buy more coffee. But this is what differentiates a human barista from the Nespresso machine. Recently with year-end celebrations, New Year and Chinese New Year parties, I have been going to fancy wine dinners. I do appreciate the effort, and savings, but after talking to fellow investor friends I realized that sometimes we just need a cool place to chillax and share ideas (aka complain about investments that didn't work out). We can even bring our own wine. This coming Friday Only Club at Gao Cap Bar we'll have an expert talk (while drinking) about how to start an art collection, because a client asked me about displaying art in humid Singapor...