Experience Phase - the thick of it

1986-2000

1986. With business down and reeling from national economic crisis, the nation had a people power revolution the previous year and installed the first woman president to unite the nation. Her cabinet was better since they came from the educated middle class. They did their best to stir back the nation's economy in the midst of chaos. The first commodity futures exchange was put up in the main business center by foreign companies taking advantage of the situation promising jobs for the people. I was one of those professionals hired to be market analyst and sales and marketing agent for this new exchange. It must be because of my former job as college instructor. Since it is a very new kind of industry, we had to undergo two months of rigid training. There were, however, players already in the market who were trading directly with agents in Hongkong. Our bosses were Chinese nationals from Malaysia, Hongkong, and Singapore. They taught us the job and how it should be done. It is similar to stock market trading. It is the highest form of sales and marketing job combined with analytic skills of market trends. We were high on our toes everyday as we were always facing high risk of our clients losing their money in just a split second. Clients enter the market through agents like us - they somewhat depend on our decisions though they also monitor the market on line. Our office is open twenty four hours six days a week for trading in the Hongkong and Chicago markets. We normally go home only when the markets close. We have to be reachable anytime during trading by our clients thus cellphones and pagers were indispensable. At the time, these were just being introduced into the country alongside with the computers.
Here I was exposed to high profile sales and marketing and trading involving well known names in the business world and politics that I never ever imagined of having meetings with. I have met some CEOs of big companies who were trading, and did some trading with them. It was also hard work for us, stressful, demanding, and we must study the business to keep abreast. To unwind, we would go to the hotel bars and other popular bars in the business center. Our bosses sometimes go with us and would bring us home after a race at the main highway. My second relationship developed during my stint here, with my trader partner. We were assigned to move in pairs for security reasons and he was my partner in the field. This was the height of my training and exposure in the field of sales and marketing. Power dressing and brain power combined in order to survive.
Many others joined us in this field because turn over of staff is very fast. Many could not endure the job pressures and left. Also, because of need for money, other agents enticed clients to enter with their hard earned money that they easily lost in the market. They started to complain to the government for opening such kind of business in the country so that the next duly elected president had to close the exchange eventually. I had already gone back to teaching in a business school when the exchange was formally closed after just over two years of operation.