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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...

Use logic in your work.

There's always this debate about whether mankind has progressed or regressed with all the technology and knowledge we have amassed. I believe the latter to be true when I see this piece of instruction (in graphical form) for my Philips garment steam iron:


Do NOT use the steamer on someone's face.
Do NOT use the steamer on a shirt that is currently on someone's body.

In case ANYONE has doubts about what the device should be used for I have included a photo of me doing a real-live demonstration.

Just when I'm thinking why would people need such obvious instructions - imagine those fancy mineral water glass bottles with a warning sign "Do not smash this on someone's head" - I came to the realization that my own profession, valuation litigation support experts, needs to be instructed:

Use logic in your work.

I've found myself in a somewhat curious situation of replying to an expert who has decided that maybe I've not had any business as an expert, like there's an alternate universe in some Marvel movie where actually I'm not me or experts work for free:

1. I have appeared in published judgements where the judges agree with my opinion. Out of a small sample size, I have a 100% hit rate. Just google "Yak Chau Wei", "expert", "valuation", "judgement". OK it's true there was one time I didn't have to take the stand even when my work was accepted and the judge wrote "Mr Yak" but that was actually still me. The other times when I had to appear in court and be cross-examined, I think it would be challenging to get a stunt-double. It's hard to even find a female expert in Singapore, and someone with my crazy curls? And my zoom appearances at tribunal sessions could have been deep fakes. Maybe I'm secretly Michelle Yeoh, with hotdogs for fingers. Theoretically anything's possible.

2. The opposing expert said just having clients does not mean there was payment for work done. It's possible, I mean lawyers do pro bono work, and perhaps clients pick me to represent them in multi-million disputes because I would work for free. It's like, hey I'm going to let medical students do open heart surgery on me as long as they are free. One of my clients was described as a tycoon in the press, so it would be weird to be charitable to him especially when my valuation helped save tens of millions in potential damages in that case.

I understand that sometimes experts just have to say something to try to help their clients. And in this aspect perhaps I am in a luckier position having a day job running a hedge fund that is actually up this year, so I have less financial pressure to say yes to a client without the necessary financial expertise. Please remember the duty of an expert is to the court.

A handheld steam iron is meant to straighten clothes, not to be used as a weapon.

#iron #hedgefund #expertwitness #multiverse





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We are launching Friday Only Club!

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