First couple of weeks

...of work, of course...

Wow, I don't even know where to begin. I checked in at the company on Monday, Sept 28, and began training right away. I have never delved into finance, so the influx of new knowledge during training oftentimes catches me off-guard. What about implied volatility? How is gamma affected? Dumbfounded by the strange feelings these financial terms incur on my mind, I kind of took the back seat and allowed them to come towards me at full speed. One voice was constantly uttered in the back of my head: All of this is too strange to you; you don't belong here.

But I know I do. This is the profession I had decided to take up as my starting career, and I'm gonna try to be successful in whatever I do. Honestly, finance is just an embellished term for ... logic? math? or a combination of both? Concocted by humans through centuries of mental and social evolution, finance is yet another tool we have designed for ourselves. Moreover, I've spent the previous 21 years of my life not being afraid of taking up challenges and tackling new things, what bloody reason is there for me to convince myself out of this one?

One thing I am worried about: the relaxed nature/timeline of my job. When I worked for Vanke (China's largest real estate company), I used to work 17-hour days and stay over at weekends to facilitate the signing of contracts and plan large-scale events. That was the image in my head for "work"--not being able to wrap up the day at 3:30 and play pingpong at the company for another 2 hours before getting out--when most of my former classmates are still toiling at the office or lab. Don't get me wrong: trading itself is by no means a relaxing job; it requires the utmost mental concentration for the full 7 hours. But I'm just worried that if I allow myself to completely adapt to this lifestyle, it would be difficult for me to adjust to new ways in the future--whatever they may be.

Chicago as a city is awesome. Boundless potential (although I witnessed it losing the Olympic bid last week...), coupled with endless liveliness, it really delivers as a hub of civilization. Outside the window of my company is an amazing view of Millennium Park.

To the east is Lake Michigan, offering an amazing view when it's not frozen.

A few other highlights would be going to a golf resort in Wiscosin with the company and finishing a 26-oz. porterhouse steak at Chicago's finest Gibson's Steakhouse (for Yan's birthday; I'm too cheap/poor to be a part of the regular clientèle...) Watch the before-and-after shots of my plate!

A new day in C-town

I learned about G.A.G. in Leadershape more than 8 months ago, and would like to apply it once again to my life. G.A.G., or Going Against the Grain, is something that you have previously been lacking at, and you pick it out and target it for an extended amount of time in order to make improvements.

In the past, I have attempted to, for at least a few times, write a blog continuously. Every time I ended up with some random excuse and left my poor blog bereft of care for ages. Therefore, my G.A.G. this time is to follow up with this post and exemplify the word "sustainability". To add to the G.A.G. and spice things up, I will try to use different languages in my posts--so don't hold me accountable for any horrendous grammatical mistake in Japanese. (or in English...?)

AND I moved into my new apartment with fellow fraternity brother Hank. These days have been filled with an intense amount of furniture-shopping. And after things settle down, our abode will surely look like a palace--Ikea style. Will post pictures later.

Tomorrow's the first day of work at Optiver. Life as a trader is soon to take off, and the most troublesome thing is that I don't know what to expect for work. Anxiously lost, I guess I'll soon find out. At this point in life, things are getting exciting and life is becoming vivid, but there still exists a certain degree of emptiness in my mind. Finding a purpose in life and going after it is a difficult task. Some people accomplish it in no time--it seems like it, but at the transition between student life and work life, I have yet to find it. Can't afford to be in the dark for much longer, I tell myself.