Final Stretch for Term 5

We're heading into the final weekend of Term 5, for a final dosage of Advanced Corporate Finance, Negotiations, and Investment Management. And for me, it also includes finishing up my Independent Study on Open Source Business Models and Pricing Strategy. It's got the usual high stress feel of too much to do with too little time. The add the usual Christmas rush plus the demands of work! As a result, I have not done a lick of Christmas shopping.

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I came across this link and thought I would pass it along:
http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html

It's Kenneth French's data library on the current values of Rm-Rf, SMB, and HML. I found it in a book I am reading on Hedge Funds, which is pretty good and explains an investor's point of view on some of the finance we have learned in IM this past term. The book is Hedge Funds: Quantitative Insights, which I saw sitting in my local library of all places.

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John and I did manage to do a bit of networking at lunch today with a WEMBA Class 28, who gave a pretty good background on his journey as a software product manager to a business-technology PWM guru at a large financial institution. What was interesting was his continued study of finance after WEMBA to get a CFA. Now he is studying for a CAIA and also a CFP. I was thinking that WEMBA was it but apparently at least five class 28s continued on for their CFA after the program. The most valuable part was talking about the exploration of different post-WEMBA options that he explored, such as I-B, VC/PE, consulting, PWM and entrepreneurship. Big takeaways for me: keeping in mind that you gotta love what you do, and that idiosyncratic skills are always the most valuable. Wise words from someone who has walked in our shoes! Apparently, the rate of radioactive decay of the MBA after graduation isn't as fast we thought it was, although I suspect that continuing on for a CFA is equivalent to injecting the degree with big boosts along the way.

Back to regressions, regressions, regressions....

Chairman P