The Big Apple

So, it's true, this semester I've been super busy. It's probably been my busiest semester so far. It's been super great, and super interesting, and I really like my major. I'm doing my Junior core taking Corporate financial reporting, Financial management, Investments, and Money Banking and Business. They are all extremely interesting. One of my teachers in the first couple days of class told us about a trip the Capital Markets Club takes to New York every year. Me at Grand Central Station I decided I wanted to jump on that boat and go to the New York and learn more about my degree and the things I could actually do with it. I flew out last Tuesday afternoon and arrived late at Laguardia airport. We took a taxi to our Super 8 motel across the river in Queens. Wednesday morning we took the subway to Grand Central Station. It was pretty sweet. There were heavily armed Police staking out the main area with assault rifles. In Connecticut we met with a lot of companies, mostly smaller in size. Some of the things that they did were private equity, private wealth, large cap investments for mutual funds, hedge funds, and fixed income investments. Very interesting, but meeting with companies from 9 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon really makes you tired, especially after going to bed late and waking up early. So we woke up and did it all again the next day, but this time in down town Manhattan. Manhattan at night from our hotel room Most of our activity was at Cerberus, one of the largest private equity firms in the U.S. One funny thing about Cerberus, is that Cerberus is the name of the three-headed dog that guards the gates to Hades in Greek mythology. He makes sure that those that are in Hades across the River Styx can't escape. What does that say about New York? Go figure. The New York Stock Exchange Thursday and Friday were about the same. We met with all of these companies, ranging from small management groups to large companies like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman sachs, Credit Suisse, and Oppenheimer. Most of the time, it was BYU alumni that had made their way to Wall Street giving these presentations. We usually had two groups going at the same time, so I didn't meet with all the companies, somehow I still managed to hear 25 presentations given. The last night we went to some hole in the wall Indian restaurant that dining area had enough room for 3 small tables, and was half the size of our kitchen, but it was super good. Good idea by our Nepalese roommate staying with us. Then we spent some time at Times Square, but all in all, we didn't really have much time to do many recreational things. Camille and I will just have to go back someday. She loves New York. Me at Times Square