Wealth Management Firm For Rock Stars

One day in 1994, while recovering from a ruptured pancreas, Guns ‘N Roses bassist Duff McKagan was puttering around his basement when he happened upon the group's financials from the previous six years. Flipping through the reports he had a bit of a panic attack when he realized, “I couldn’t make sense of it. I didn’t know how much we had made or lost on the tour. So he decided to take some finance classes at Santa Monica Community College and while fronting his new band, Velvet Revolver, started giving financial advice on the side.

It was around that time that McKagan realized a couple things. 1) That he was pretty good at this money management stuff and 2) fellow musicians were comfortable being counseled by him because he didn’t “wear a suit” and therefore wasn’t representative of The Man. And that’s when a lightbulb went off.

He would team up with someone who had a little bit but not much more financial wisdom to impart but who wouldn’t scare off anti-Establishment rockstars with his fancy degrees and experience in the industry because Duff would be there to tell them the guy was cool. McKagan found him in former banker Andy Bottomsley. Together the two will launch Meridian Rock, which will “educate rockers about their finances instead of pandering or lying to them,” and will be straight with colleagues re: whether or not they’re completely broke. The firm is actively seeking money managers in Europe and the US. Here’s what will be expected of you.

No word on comp but it seems as though you could easily work in some guarantees for a few groupies at year’s end.

Are You Tired?

How many of you have said "I am tired" today? Everyone experiences fatigue but did you know that severe chronic fatigue can actually be an illness?

In October 1985, 8 children went on a sledding trip together and within weeks, all of them fell ill. Their symptoms resembled those of the flu but they lasted for weeks, months, and even years. This mysterious illness that rendered the children unable to get out of bed spread throughout the village and eventually affected 214 people within a 30-mile radius.

The number of Americans estimated to have this illness, which is clinically named Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is 1 to 4 million. And because of CFS, annual productivity lost to the U.S. economy is estimated to be about $9.1 billion.



So, the next time your friend tells you that he/she feels tired, make an effort to ask him/her how long this has been going on and perhaps inform of them of the existence of CFS.

Federal Reserve Event

Also, new event coming up.

We're co-sponsoring with EHS to bring Debby Perelmuter, Senior VP of Research at the Federal Reserve. Come out to learn about the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve's response to the financial crisis and to find out more about working in the Federal Reserve. We're sure a lot of your questions will be answered.

See you guys there!

Protest, Power and the Economy

We all know about the protests that have been going on one after the other in the Middle East. Is this random? Perhaps not. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain--what do they have in common? And what's next?

So apparently, it could be a combination of unemployment rate and length of dictatorship that drives likelihood of protest. The graphic below pretty much summarizes in all: green dot shows how many years the current leader has been in power, white dot shows the rate of unemployment.

Perhaps the protests are going to stop spreading for a while...

(From: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663331/infographic-of-the-day-where-will-protests-strike-next-in-the-middle-east)

Apple's New iPad - Can it Keep the Momentum?

Apple's about to announce the release of their new iPad tomorrow, March 2nd. As we know, the original iPad is one of the fastest selling consumer electronic device, the question is will the Apple and iPad 2 be able to live up to their customers' expectations?

We can get an interesting look at this with looking at Apple's stock fluctuations with the news release tomorrow morning.

Interested? You can follow the release of the iPad 2 at: http://live.gizmodo.com/

Reminder - We do have an event on Thursday, March 3rd. It is a wonderful Networking 101 event and it will be very useful for recruitment all year round. We look forward to seeing you there!

Networking 101

Hey FS Members,

Don't know if you guys were at our Networking 101 event last semester; our speakers had some really interesting (and funny) personal anecdotes, with great takeaway points for all of us. But anyhow, Networking 101 is back! Join us this Thursday to learn more from those who've been through the whole recruiting process before.

See you there!

Month-End Recap, Dec 2010

As usual, this is not investment advice and should not be construed as such.

I am currently 90% invested, as follows:

62% Agricultural commodities
10% Other commodities
12% Emerging market equities
06% Miscellaneous equities
10% Cash

My largest position continues to be in soybeans, followed by sugar.

Although my net exposure hasn't changed from last month, I've redone my allocations somewhat. Most tangibly, I've continued to sell EM equities into weakness, while adding to my exposure in grains and softs. Both switches worked out well. Looking ahead, I hope not to make any major portfolio changes for at least a few months.

As for performance: December was a very good month to end what was a very good year for my portfolio. I ended the year at my high-water mark, which is always gratifying. Even more gratifying is the fact that I handily beat pretty much every benchmark imaginable -- MSCI World, S&P 500, GSCI, CRB, Gold, Oil, RJA, Barc Agg Bond, CSHFI, you name it -- without taking on any leverage or illiquidity. Here's hoping 2011 brings more of the same!