Ika 4 ng Pebrero 2009: Economic Barometer

Interesting morning........ I took the morning off from work, my main work that is..... to take care of an important requirement of my other work, my other income generator but to a lesser degree which, however, gives me enormous satisfaction and fulfillment. So why am I stuck in my main work? Because I need to survive, that's why! Why is it that moonlighting is more enjoyable than the work that we do!!!??? Maybe, that would be a good topic for a separate post.....

I arranged for my students to have a seminar on stock trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange. It was set at 9:30am. I rushed out of the house to make it on time. I took the bus at Alabang so that I can take the MRT once I reach EDSA. I had enough time but then the queue at the ticket booth was mile-long..... It took me roughly 15 minutes to get a ticket and get on the train. My friend who works in the same building told me that there is a shuttle service going to Tektite at the back of Robinson's Galleria. By the time I arrived at Robinson's, it was around 9:25am. I took the cab which pulled up in front of me.

The driver asked me where i was headed and I said PSE. He said SEC. I said stock exchange and that clarified things. Well, the driver had to say something about SEC and commended the senators who grilled SEC officials and employees for the pre-need fiasco. It turned out he was a victim like me. His is CAP and mine is Pacific Plans which was recently sold to the Onate group when Yuchengco were supposed to pay up the planholders of the approved tuition fees for the rehabilitation scheme next year. The driver was so passionate in his tirade against this pre-need companies saying that they (pre-need owners) duped small savers like us who wanted a good future for our children. Amen to that..... He was aware that SEC had a hand in letting this pre-need companies operate and even allowed them to put one over the planholders when trouble started. He was quite not done talking but I had to get off as I was a few minutes late.

I was disoriented and got through to so many doors before finding the place where the students and I were supposed to register. Half of my students were there already and I was relieved they were not late. However, one of them was in flipflops.... PSE does not allow entry to visitors in flipflops. One of the students would have sandals in her car which she lent to the one in flipflops. I asked a student to call the rest and they were there before the call could be made. Then, another student was in flipflops..... darn! I could only look at her as I sent an advisory for them to be in proper attire. Again, a student would save the day...... he has rubber shoes in his car with socks to boot. The two of them went off to change the banned footwear. Didn't these students read about the flipflops scandal at the White House! I would gently remind them to observe proper protocol during out-of-campus activities. Soon, we were on our way to the seminar venue.

For starters, the seminar was conducted by a good-looking young man. The presentation material, however, can't be shown because of some technology glitch. Anyway, I think we have quite a view ............... it was all glass and we could see the trading floor and the electronic board..........what are you thinking! Even without the powerpoint presentation, the guy was able to pull off a very informative briefing on trading stocks. The items on the electronic board was shown and explained. Now, the students can read and understand the trading board. Questions were entertained as the discussion moved along. We were with another school, UP Manila. I think the students appreciate knowing that one can actually engage in stock trading for as little as P5,000. At the end of his talk, the facilitator encouraged the students to join the stock trading game and the best thesis or feasibility study contest. Some winners of these contests were eventually hired by PSE and some stockbrokers. The last part of the briefing was a tour around the trading floor where you get to see a full view of the floor and a display of memorabilia given as tokens to PSE by prominent visitors from different countries.

We all went back to Makati to have lunch at Som's as planned when we discussed this activity since some of the students have not tried eating here. One student, however, had to beg off because she had to be with her sick sister. I drove with them to the venue. Realizing I will be late if I'll take my lunch with them, I asked if I can just take-out my lunch to make it to work this afternoon. I bade them goodbye when they were settled. I took a cab and headed to the office.

Quite a full day day so far....... but I am really pleased giving these kinds of activities to my students to make them value the importance of savings and investment. In economics, this two GDP components are treated as equal. One cannot invest without saving first. Investing in stocks is an alternative that not many Pinoys have tried considering the little investment needed to engage in stock trading. The stock market is a good measure of how well an economy is performing and not the other way around as our good-looking facilitator would clarify. Stocks markets will remain robust as long as the economic fundamentals are functioning well meaning a country has manageable growth, umemployment, stable inflation as well as stable monetary and fiscal policies.

Will have have a bullish outlook in the Year of the Ox?

PS: Ngayon na lang ulit ako nakasakay sa MRT. Namiss ko rin ang pagsakay dito..... yun mga kakaibang amoy, itsura, arte ng mga taong sumasakay dito. Mga dalawang taon din ito ang transportasyon ko nung namamasukan pa ako sa isang international organization sa me Ortigas Center. Masarap alalahanin ang panahon na yon kasi dun ako natutong makihalubilo sa iba't ibang lahi at kultura pati na rin amoy. Marami kang matututunan. Maganda rin ang kita dun. Pero hindi lahat maganda dahil me mga bagay din na nakakasama ng loob sa pakikipagtrabaho sa mga banyaga. Natapos yun sa pagtatapos ng kontrata ko sa trabahong yon. At ngayon sumakay ulit ako sa MRT ay parang naalala ko ang pakikibaka ko ng mga panahon na yon.......