Market Pulses Issue 1

7/30/2019 Market Pulses Issue 1

1/12DECEMBER 2012 |

December

Volume I, IsJunior Fellowship for Financial LiteracyMARKET PULSES


2/122 | MARKET PULSES

welcome you all to this maiden issue ofMarket Pulses.

This newsletter is published for us students who are interested in finance and in writing, to improve our financial literacy as we hour craft. Some of us may find our niche in these seemingly opposite disciplines and eventually be read in the Economist, FinanTimes, Business World and many more. This is for those who may find listening to a voice of a peer better in grasping business financial matters. This is for us all.

hope that, in Market Pulses, we are able to inject youth into financial literacy. Let our writers thus never abandon fun and humothese pages, and let our readers always find a voice in here as we stride towards our common vision of creating a nation of financproficient citizens.

Franco ImpPresid

VISIONThe Junior Fellowship for Financial Literacy envisions a

nation of financially proficient students

MISSIONThe Junior Fellowship for Financial Literacy aims to (1) equip members,

along with individuals within and beyond the Ateneo community, with sound

financial skills; and (2) network with financial institutions and student-led

organizations to create a cooperative environment for the exercise and en-

hancement of financial proficiency.

JFeLFOUNDING MEMBERS

PRESIDENT Franco Imperial

ASSET MANAGER Shaun SiCORPORATE FINANCE MANAGER Audrey NgCORPORATE FINANCE MANAGER Macy TaycoFUND MANAGER Tenten PinedaNFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER Jaime ConstantinoNFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGER Marco Echon

PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGER Carlo SarinoPERSONAL FINANCE MANAGER Miguel Mapa


3/12DECEMBER 2012 | 3

CONTENTSCONTENTS0405

0608

0910

11

Consumer SpotlightStocks: The Gambling Comparison

The U.S. Fiscal CliffThe Lagarde Talk

The Filipinos ThirstBeyond Sentiment

Initial Spark



TTTThe Philippines has always beenknown as a consumptionbased economy which could be

attributed to the large amount ofOFW remittances entering the Philip-pines. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipi-nas is expecting a further increase ofUnited States Dollar (USD) remit-

tances entering the country this year.The problem the BSP is facing nowhowever, is the appreciation of thevalue of the Philippine Peso (PHP)relative to the USD.

Recent upgrades in investmentgrade of the country have been caus-ing the appreciation of the Philippine

Peso, and at the same time attract-ing more foreign investments. How-ever, Filipinos receiving USD remit-tances are receiving less PHP fromconversion due to the strengtheninglocal currency.

WHY BUY CONSUMER?WHY BUY CONSUMER?WHY BUY CONSUMER?WHY BUY CONSUMER?

Two companies on which I will befocusing are Puregold Price Club, Inc.and Universal Robina Corporation.

Puregold Price Club, Inc. (PGOLD)has been on track in opening newstores nationwide. Net profit has ex-hibited an increasing trend as well.

Technically, the chart says a consoli-dation period could be in order, butthe company still shows promising

fundamentals. Consolidation is gen-erally regarded as a period of indeci-sion, in which the movement of anasset's price is within a well definedpattern in price levels.

Universal Robina Corporation (URC)manufactures products such as:Chippy, C2, and Great Taste WhiteCoffee. Sales of goods and servicesin URC's branded consumer foodsgroup excluding the packaging divi-sion increased by 11.1% for the first

three quarters of 2012, as com-pared to the same period of lastyear. Based on the graphs, it is pres-ently experiencing a sharp uptrendand may come to a stop soon. Agood entry point (price at which tobuy) with high upside (potential forprofit) would be around the range ofPHP 68-70, assuming it reaches thislevel again in the coming months.

The charts posted below and in thefollowing page show a general up-

trend, and investors could expectthis to continue for the coming year,as long as the market cooperates.With the holiday season fast ap-proaching, sales growth could beexpected for both companies for thecurrent quarter of 2012.

With elections also just around the

CONSUMER SPOTLIGHT

Source

:Bloomberg

Source:COLFinancial


5/12DECEMBER 2012 | 5

corner, purchasing consumer stocks

could yield higher gains, as in-creased sales could be generatedfrom higher consumer expenditure.One thing that needs to be consid-ered is the fluctuations of commodityprices, which could affect the mar-gins of these companies. Apart from

this, it is necessary to take into con-

sideration the US Fiscal Cliff as well,seeing that this could have an effecton the amount on remittances sentto the Philippines from the UnitedStates.

Overall, the consumption sector

would be a great investment oppor-tunity with all the pieces falling intoplace. Consumer stocks should beseen as a defensive opportunity forinvestor's portfolios, as around 70%

of the Philippine economy revolvesaround consumption, based on re-search by Credit-Suisse. MP

- Carlo SarinoCarlo SarinoCarlo SarinoCarlo SarinoPersonal Finance Manager

Data gathered: 20 Nov 2012

STOCKS: THE GAMBLING COMPARISON

SSSSometime during the first weekof class, I was chatting with afriend who was already trading

in the stock market. He mentionedthat trading is quite risky, even forseasoned veterans. An acquaintanceof his had apparently just lost a tonof money, simply because that friendmade the mistake of taking a nicehot shower instead of keeping hiseyes glued onto the screen of his

laptop, watching for the movementsof his high risk investments.

Stories like that would be scary forjust about anyone, including myself.As such we have to ask: Is stocktrading gambling? Try looking upstocks and gambling on the inter-net and youll come across a lot ofpeople running financial literacyblogs and fora giving their two centsabout the issue. What youll find is

that a lot of people have identifiedthis comparison as one of the big-gest stock market myths.

Especially with stories such as theone my friend told me, stock tradingdoes conjure up an image of highstakes cutthroat gambling on a hugescale, much like professional TexasHold Em, only without the crowds,the lights, and the televised drama.

Stock market investing also does notallow you to see the other playerson the table, which means strategiesthat involve reading the other play-ers faces or mastering the perfectpoker face will definitely not help.

The most familiar similarity of stockinvesting and gambling is the factthat you can either gain or losemoney in both ventures. By investingor gambling, you are simply risking

your money due to uncertain out-comes. That, however, is the extentof the similarities.

Gambling is a fairly straightforwardconcept. It takes money from losersand then gives it to the lucky win-ners. For every peso you gain fromwinning a round of poker, someoneelse loses. Its a one to one corre-spondence. Investing in the stock

market on the other hand is simplyputting money into the hands of peo-ple who have good uses for it.

As you gain income regularly, or formost of us, get allowance, you wouldtypically spend it on your needs andwants. Not all of the money goes intobuying frappes for the latest Star-bucks planner, nor is the moneyspent on the newest PS3 games.Depending on how thrifty you are

...purchasingconsumer stocks could yield

higher gains.

Source:COL

Financial



and how much allowance you get, you arebound to find yourself with some moneyleft even after all your expenses. This left-over money can be put in a bank, or it canbe invested in other financial vehiclessuch as stocks. Either way, the money youdecide to place is put to use for every con-ceivable thing you can think of, from beingused to fund the construction of a hospital

in Africa, to acquiring the materialsneeded to build an awesome new amuse-ment park near you. The money, insteadof sitting idly in your piggy bank, may beused to create wealth if these companiesthat use your money are successful. In-stead of only benefiting winners, thewealth that is created when you invest instocks can benefit the public at large.

Another thing to note is that by investingin a stock of a company, you are actuallybuying entitlement to that companys as-

sets and a tiny portion of that companysfuture profits as well. In other words, buy-ing stocks of a company technicallymakes you an owner!

Now before you get excited by thoughts ofbeing able to say, Im part owner of SM!know that as part-owner, you are also vul-nerable to its losses. This is why you caneither gain or lose from investing instocks. Intuitively, you can see why stockinvesting is risky, just like gambling. Itsdifficult to know and predict which compa-

nies are going to successful with their en-deavors. The market is a dynamic entity.Outcomes and business outlooks canchange very quickly. This is why a lot ofpeople, especially students like us areafraid to dabble in stocks.

Fortunately, there are methods that canallow you to discern market conditionsand so be able to invest in the rightstocks, at the right times. Then again, justlike everything worthwhile, it takes effortto master. So, in stock investing and trad-ing, you have to do your homework (Walaka talagang takas sa homework!). Exert

yourself and learn the ropes. Learn with

other like-minded people (hint: Jfellows)

so that you can overcome your fears! MP

- Nic RabangNic RabangNic RabangNic RabangContributor

THE U.S.THE U.S.

FISCALFISCALCLIFFCLIFF

IIIIf you were to browse through Bloomberg.com or any othernews medium, you probably might have come acrossmuch buzz concerning the US fiscal cliff. Whether you

want to be in-the-know with regards to major global news, oryou simply wish to impress your girlfriends parents, it is im-portant to have an idea of what the fiscal cliff is, consideringthat it may pose significant effects on our economy.

What is the US fiscal cliff? It entails both the expiration of taxcuts and mandatory spending cuts scheduled to take placeon January 1. In the years 2001 and 2003, President Bushand US congress signed a legislation moving for tax reformsinvolving certain tax cuts. These tax cuts however were de-

Source

:http://www.jamesfike.com/2012/04/27/panther-beach-2/


7/12DECEMBER 2012 | 7

signed to expire at the end of 2010as a means of conforming to thebudget. They were not made perma-nent.

By 2010, expiration of these tax cuts

was postponed by another two yearsthereby resetting the date to January1, 2013. According to the Congres-sional Budget Office (CBO), the fed-eral agency within the legislativebranch of the US government re-sponsible for providing economicdata to congress, federal taxes willincrease by $221 billion dollarswhen these tax cuts expire. Apartfrom this, a two year payroll tax origi-nally passed in 2010 which reducedtaxes on working Americans by 2% is

also set to expire this coming 1st ofJanuary. It is estimated to increasetaxes by an additional $95 billionnext year.

With regards to spending cuts neces-sary to meet the budget, $85 billionwill automatically be eliminated -$32 billion from military spendingand $53 billion from education,health care, law enforcement andother social programs. Democrats

and Republicans came to a compro-mise last year in scheduling theautomatic cuts as a means of set-tling a dispute regarding the govern-ments borrowing authority whichwas threatening to send the US into

default. All in all, the spending cutsand the higher taxes will result to$671 billion being sliced out of theAmerican economy come next year.

What are the consequences if thefiscal cliff takes place next year?Though it would narrow the federalbudget deficit which is now $1.1 tril-lion, it would pose a devastating ef-fect to the US economy which hadbarely rebounded from the last re-cession. Americans would have less

money to spend. The CBO even pre-dicts that the fiscal cliff would cata-pult the US economy into a reces-sion. Unemployment rate could bespiked to more than 9%.

Unless payroll tax cuts are imple-mented again, Americans will havetheir paychecks diminished by highertaxes. On top of this, beneficiaries ofcertain social programs coveringeducation and health care among

others will be forced to spend more,even after having their incomessapped away by the increased taxes.What are the fiscal cliffs implica-tions on the Philippine economy?

Christine Lagarde, the managing di-rector of the International MonetaryFund, in her youth talk held last Fri-day put emphasis on how importantinterconnectivity is at an interna-tional scale. Events in certain coun-tries will always pose effects on oth-ers. In light of the US fiscal cliff, thePhilippines is at risk of losing one ofits biggest export clients. Accordingto the Office of the United StatesTrade Representative, the Philip-pines ranks as the United States

38th largest supplier of goods as of2011. In 2011, Philippine goods ex-ported to the US totaled $9.1 billion,these goods including electrical ma-chinery, machinery, knit apparel, fatsand oils and woven apparel among

others. MP

- Jaime MarforiJaime MarforiJaime MarforiJaime MarforiContributor



CCCCertainly a rockstar in her ownright, Christine Lagarde is the8th most powerful woman in

the world according to Forbes maga-

zine. In her latest visit to the Philip-pines, Ms. Lagarde spoke in front ofa young and enthusiastic crowd atthe Asian Institute of Management inMakati City. The talk was entitled"Policy Challenges in the World ofInterconnections"; a fitting topic intoday's globalized world.

Ms. Lagarde provided quite a num-ber of insights to the audience. Sheexpressed her ideas in three mainpoints. Firstly, she described the un-

derestimated accelerator and con-taminator factor. Secondly, the poli-cies that advanced economies mustadapt and prioritize. Lastly, shespoke about what Asia must do toachieve its potential.

Being the lawyer that she is, her elo-quence made things much easier tounderstand. When she talked aboutthis accelerator and contaminatorfactor, she revealed this factor to bethat of super fast connectivity. She

addressed this by asking the audi-ence who did NOT own a cell phone.The lack of movement led her to jok-ingly remark that it was a confirma-tion of how the increase rate in cellphone users was 112% in the coun-try. She then took time to explainprecisely the density of Asia's net-work and how much potential theregion has to affect the world econ-omy. The density of networks in Asiashows that interconnection betweencountries surrounding the Philip-

pines as well as around the globe. Itis through this interconnection, also,that interdependency is also clearlyseen; where a decreased demand inthe USA, for example, may affectmanufacturing in China, Cambodiaand even the Philippines simply be-cause the value chain is distributedinternationally.

She ended her first point by advisingeveryone to embrace this intercon-

facts such as the GDP of Asia com-prising 30% of the world GDP. This isa big jump from the 10% share Asiahad only a decade ago. She also saidthat the growth of the economies inAsia would constantly be 2% higherthan that of the world average forthe next few years. At that point, sheeffectively declared that Asia andPhilippines in particular will be theplace to make investments, startbusinesses and make a profit. Itmakes these times, for us, very excit-

ing.

Her challenge for the audience wasto do their part in making all theseideals possible. Because then again,we are that generation this greatfortune has landed on. It is up to ourgeneration to make the most out ofthis wonderful opportunity. It is in ourown hands to make this time in our

lives a big part of financial history. MP

- Mico ClavanoMico ClavanoMico ClavanoMico Clavano

Contributor

nection with all its challenges andthreats. It is through accepting thisreality, she says, that people will beable to cope with 'super fast connec-

tivity' and make strengths and oppor-tunities out of it.

Moving on to her next point, Ms. La-garde evidently spoke from experi-ence. She targeted the policy makersin the country, stressing their impor-tance in any economy's develop-ment. She gave figures that showedthe Philippines' current unemploy-ment situation. According to thesefigures, the country is at 17% unem-ployment amounting to a total of

about 17 million people, 7 million ofwhich are considered young workerslike us. She found this quite alarm-ing, especially because the economyis supposed to be picking up. Thisthen led her to attribute this to theproblem of income inequality, thatonly the rich are gaining wealth.

To conclude her second point La-garde alluded to her first point bysaying that policies must be appro-priate with the times. As examples,

she used the USA and the EU. Bothgovernments want to maintain finan-cial stability and sustainability. To-day, however, there are certain ob-stacles that hinder them fromachieving their goal. For each ofthese governments, the nature of theobstacle differs. Lagarde advisedthese governments to align their poli-cies according to the obstacles theywish to eliminate and implementthese policies effectively.

On her last point, she gave her in-sights on how Asia could reach itspotential. In her opinion, it was thealignment of policies to target finan-cial stability, the integration of na-tional economies through mutualinvestment, and better governancethrough the limitation or completeeradication of corruption that willhelp Asia realize its potential.

Lagarde ended her speech with

THE LAGARDE TALK

Source:http://www.imf.org/exte

rnal/np/omd/bios/cl.htm


9/12DECEMBER 2012 | 9

THE FILIPINOS THIRST

FFFFilipinos have created a societythat is bindingly loyal to one ofthe most lucrative essentials

today: beer. Even in 2012, San Mi-guel Brewery Inc. enjoyed a 3%growth on its products from last year,garnering a total of 164 millioncases of beer sold. And while thesecorporations continue to enjoy strongrevenue growth, the senates ongo-

ing push for the implementation ofthe sin tax billwhich presses for arevision of the excise tax rate of alco-hol among other sin productshasraised the main issue of the lax ac-cessibility on these items.

Upon skimming the surface, blamingthe low price of Red Horse conse-quently causing me to endlessly buyit during a night out might seemsound. However seeing as I belong

to a private university filled with mid-dle to upper middle-class students,dubbing the price of beer as lowbecomes largely problematic, simplybecause 1) I do not represent themajority of the Filipino people and 2)I dont even use my own money tosupport my alcohol intake; I dontwork yet! However, as alcohol con-sumerism has become such a wide-

spread national issue regardless ofsocioeconomic status, my questionbecomes: is it really that accessiblein the first place, or do we just reallylove our beer too much?

In fact, a recent chart posted by theEconomist with information providedfrom analysts of UBS, a Swiss bank,on the relationship of labor and beerin different countries, shows that ittakes close to 40 minutes of labor

on a national medium wage for aFilipino to afford 500mL of beeralone. Now, imagine an ordinary mid-dle-aged Filipino father working 8

hours in a day and going out to un-wind with his friends after dinner. Hepromises to drink one beer, andends up downing five because itscheap and accessible. He just usedup more than 3 hours of work com-pared to an American who only losesclose to 25 minutes with the sameamount of intake even with a higherprice of its beer. India is the onlycountry toiling more than the Philip-pines with more than 50 minutes ofwork for every 500mL of beer, citing

low wages and high tariffs on im-ported alcohol with the absence of afree trade agreement with the Euro-pean Union (EU).

But for the Filipino, low wages do notseem to hamper habits on drinkingand perhaps other habits for thatmatter. The demand for these prod-ucts has become inelastic in varyinglevels regardless if youre living inForbes or in poverty. This mightmean drinking just as much when

Pacquiao wins or loses a fight. Orgiving a toast to various fiestas andholidays within the month. It mightbe something more intimate such ascelebrating happy hour with thebarkada on the street almost every-day. The social cost now becomesmore than just a health concern, butan unyielding society with prioritiesthat are still questionable.

And while not enough data has beenconducted on negative effects such

as alcoholism and substance abusein the country, citing accessibility asthe only reason for externalities tohave occurred seems lacking to meas an individual. We will always havebuyers who will consume alcohol and

cigarettes at any price. MP

- Melissa Mariel YuMelissa Mariel YuMelissa Mariel YuMelissa Mariel YuContributor

Sourc

e:TheEconomist



AAAA

bout a year ago, I remembertweeting and ranting about the

BBM network like never be-fore. Being on my JTA semester inFrance, my communication practi-cally depended on BBM, consideringthe heavy charges that Europeanphone providers charged for textmessaging. If you have been follow-ing the Blackberry story during thepast year, you could probably pin-point this huge network crash for acouple of days as a big tipping point,one which had a very steep and slip-pery slope waiting on the other side.

I mean, personally it isnt too bad,being BBM-less for 2 days as I re-member. But I guess this showed aflaw, for a company aiming to be thetop handset choice and communica-tion system of majority of the enter-prise sector.

After this said event, challenges end-lessly started to pile up. Aside fromthe network problems, you had therelease of the iPhone 4S, and justrecently, the iPhone 5. We also see

the Android phones gaining muchmarket share as well, having somegreat innovations themselves. Moreand more people have started tohold the Samsungs and HTCs,which created a more complicatedand competitive battlefield in theconsumer market. The problematicpast few months of Blackberry haveseen many people making variousswitches to other handsets. Althoughthe switch as they called it, is whatalmost everyone did drop the ber-

ries and grab the apples.

The tragedy may be easily summa-rized. It was about all these contro-versial network problems being ex-perienced with the Blackberry smart-phones coupled with the intensecompetition being battled out in thesmartphone consumer market,which Blackberry was not able tokeep up with. As expected, there wasno way you could get DrawSome-

thing on your Bold9800, nor couldyou get Temple Run on your Torch!

So now with all this, you have a stockprice that plunges devastatingly.Within the last year, shareholdershave seen Research in Motion Ltd.Stock (RIMM), the stock of the com-pany behind Blackberry, give a49.42% loss on investment. Evenworse, imagine people who boughtRIMM stock on June 16, 2008 whenRIMM was flying high at $144.56,had they stayed on the ride, theywould have now lost more than 93%of their investment.

Despite this one-sided story being soeasy to understand for an averagetrader, there is and was somethingworth looking into here, which is thepoint of this article.

RIMM stock caught my eye justabout when it dropped to single dig-its in terms of stock price. From thenon all I could do was really imagineits stock price going bust at thatpoint all the way down, as thats just

how bad it seemed in the market.The thing is, what is a stock price,really?

A stock price is a price determinedby the forces of demand in supply inthe stock market. In no way is astock price a tag saying how muchthe ownership of one share in a com-pany intrinsically is worth - and thatswhy we trade the mysterious stockmarket as we all have differentguesses of what the price should

REALLY be. So that maybe even if itdid go all the way down, there is noassurance that the stock was actu-ally worth that much the stockcould have then been undervaluedfor being priced too low or maybestill even overvalued for still beingtoo high. This is easy to say but diffi-cult to keep in mind when you aredrowned in the stock market world,which is predominantly governed bythe idea of prices, clouding the sim-

ple concepts at play.

At the time I was closely monitoringRIMM with some friends, I saw thestock drop further. From a stock thatused to trade above $100 easily, itwas now going $9-8, $8-7, and just afew months ago at $6-7/share mark.All I could really think about at thispoint was damn, these guys arescrewed. Blackberry was looking sobad in the public scene that RIMMstock looked like things could neverreverse. It was only at this time thatsomething became noticeable. Re-

member how our accounting teach-ers time and time again defined forus what book value/share meant insimple and memorable terms? Fromwhat I remember they mentionedthat the company closes down and itpays for all its liabilities by liquidatingits assets, the money remaining iswhat is divided and paid out toshareholders. In a sense, that couldbe the fair and conservative way offinding the value of a share at theleast. But the thing is, most stocks

trade above book value because ob-viously book value dictates somesort of intrinsic value on paper butmarket sentiment and future cashflow projections come in and are re-sponsible for the higher price or Mar-ket Value (price it is traded at) of thestock.

So with that in mind, applied to theRIMM case, the ballpark figure fromcomputation to be paid to everyshareholder was $10. So if you have

a stock you can buy at $6, but itshould easily go for 10$ book value,what do you have? You have a neararbitrage. Arbitrage is making moneyoff price discrepancies while assum-

ing very minimal or close to no risk.

Buying the stock at 6$, our risk isthe company could default. But thinkabout it. If it does, we are more thansatisfied if not rejoicing, by earning66% on our investment if they wereto close up and pay out. Arbitrage

BEYOND SENTIMENTTrading Smartly in the Smartphone Industry


11/12DECEMBER 2012 | 11

indeed. (Lets say things werent val-ued properly and +/- $2 should beadded for cushion. Still, a great tradeat 33% gain!) So when you seesomething below book value, itshould at least catch your eye as atrader!

What can be seen here is how mar-

ket sentiment can really cloud thestock market. For a normal trader, itwould definitely be a sell right away.Heck, why would I want to be part ofa sinking ship that everyone can seeon CNN? The thing here is that wemust look at the bigger picture andrationalize. But who are tradingRIMM stock? For the more evidentpart its the people who follow thebarrage that RIMM is receiving interms of media and sales volumes.Also at play are the managers of gi-

ant hedge funds and pension funds(funds who manage billions of dol-lars in savings or pension). Peoplewho manage billions of dollars dousually succumb to what can becalled headline trading, which is

trading immediately based on newsheadlines. Get this, I learned in Paristhat a major pension fund highly in-vested in Boeing the aircraft manu-facturer has computers running24/7, searching the words Boeingand crash and can sell all Boeingstock within milliseconds of findingany match of those words on the net!

Thats how these big funds work.Wanting to be safe at all times, theycant afford to go through the detailsof the news. So, with the size of hold-ings they have, tension is high and ifthese funds were holding RIMMstock, hitting the immediate sell asthe panic button was an inevitablemove. For every cent the stock loseson price, these hedge funds are los-ing in the millions of dollars, some-thing they would cut loss (sell sharesand exit position to avoid potential

further loss) at. Therefore whenthese big guys sell, with the massivevolume of shares they have, theycould move the price down at amuch faster pace cause supply all ofa sudden is massive.

My aim here is NOT to recommendRIMM as a buy. Not at allit is still ata risky stage no matter what anyonesays. My aim was to cite the opportu-nity presented a few months backwhen it reached $6-7, with the goalof proving my main point: that thisnear arbitrage opportunity provedthat the stock market is not always

efficient and at times is not as ra-tional as it could be and this pro-vides us opportunities to make goodtrades if we are creative, unique, andif we see beyond sentiment! You mayhave traded in your Blackberry for aniPhone, but in the world of invest-ment, its a whole different story.

Think like an investor, not a con-sumer. Youre in the market to makethe bucks, not to choose a product.At the time of the writing of this arti-

cle, RIMM is at $9.90. So yeah, theopportunity indeed paid dividends. MP

- Miguel MapaMiguel MapaMiguel MapaMiguel MapaPersonal Finance Manager

SSSSome of you may already knowthe genesis of the organiza-tion. But, it is better perhaps

that I briefly go back to it for thebenefit of those who do not know ityet and for the rest of us to glimpseagain the initial spark that began thegrowing fire in our organization.

It is also fitting that a document onthe origins of our organization shouldbe included, for posteritys sake, in

the first official publication of theorganization.

The original vision of JFeL was thisbook club type of group where stu-dents would meet once a week totalk about the business environmentand its effect on certain stocks. We,the founders, imagined ourselveshanging out in one of the membersveranda or sala, one afternoon orSunday morning every week, to try to

INITIAL SPARKmake sense together these mattersover coffee or tea. In the StocksClub that we imagined, for example,we talk about a common Bloombergor Business World article. Only be-cause it interests us.

We thought that the club could begreat way to chill, relax and at thesame time, educate ourselves, raiseour awareness and learn more aboutthe financial environment. The idea

came to us after we realized that alot of us were actually interested inthese types of things but we only didnot have the venue to learn morefrom or simply have friends to con-verse about these things with.

When we came together, we realizedthat the club had the potential ofbecoming an organization. The or-ganization would be specializing instocks and its technicalities, and

would provide venue for the discus-sion and learning about it. The scopeof the organization would extend toother financial securities but the fo-cus would be on stocks since no or-ganization in Ateneo had been spe-cializing solely on this.

But, then, we further realized that ithad not only been stocks literacythat had been overlooked in theAteneo but financial literacy, in gen-

eral, as well. Until JFeL came intoexistence, financial literacy in theAteneo and provisions of venues forit outside of the classrooms had notbeen as urgent.

LITTLE FIRELITTLE FIRELITTLE FIRELITTLE FIRE

After its initial spark, JFeL is now onits sixth month. It has attracted over200 students of the Ateneo, as hasbeen the original intent, from



courses as diverse as Philosophy toApplied Mathematical Finance.

It has also attracted the attention ofJCFAP (Junior Confederation of Fi-nance Associations), the umbrellaorganization for student finance or-ganizations in the Philippines, underwhich JFeL is now already affiliated.

Despite its youth and current statusas an independent organization,JFeL has already been guided by theAteneo de Manilas John GokongweiSchool of Management under itswings.

Led by only nine officers during thefirst semester of the current school

year, JFeL has already implementedfour successful projects beginningwith the first talk, in the Ateneo, onthe basics of online trading, from theopening of account to the actualtrading.

The current semester opened auspi-ciously for JFeL with three projects in

three consecutive weeks: the fieldtrip to the Asian Institute of Manage-ment, in partnership with AEA(Ateneo Economics Association), tohear and meet with the InternationalMonetary Fund Director, ChristineLagarde; the start of Money Mat-ters: Conversations over Coffee, theBook Club, and the SunLife talk on

insurance and personal finance forstudents and staff.

Many more projects are to be ex-pected in the coming weeks as JFeLhas been tapped to partner on theAteneo Placement Exposure Series(APEX) on Finance with the LoyolaSchools Office Placement and on the

Finance 102/103 Tutoring programwith the Sanggunian ng mga Paara-lang Loyola ng Ateneo de Manila.

JFeL is starting a fire, it is still smallbut it will definitely grow more. MP

- Franco ImperialFranco ImperialFranco ImperialFranco ImperialPresident

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