中年生活(6) - 下半部分

“no, I didn’t mean that. You look absolutely gorgeous. I am just telling you I am not rich, in contrast, I need money.”

Scott把酒杯在手里转着, 又说:”you know I put $50MM in our fund, but that is not my money. That money is from the family trust of Judy’s parents.”

“they trust you. They know you will make a fortune for them.”

“Maybe, Maybe not. I used to be very confident on my skills, but not now.”
“Why?”苏眉惊讶地问.

Scott长出一口气:”5 years ago, we had only $500MM. $500MM, for me, is a peanut!”Scott高声说, 幸好酒吧里噪声大, 不必要为此尴尬:”I could easily turn the entire portfolio over and over again if I wanted. I was in and out the same day. I made money like,”Scott打了一个响指:”like this!”

“now, you know, May, the fund changed a lot. Our dear Chris raised money from here and there. I feel:”Scott痛苦地说:”so difficult to move the portfolio around, so difficult! It is just impossible to manage a multibillion portfolio nimbly. There are opportunities out there, everyday you see these opportunities come up, but what can I do? Size of our portfolio prohibits me from going after them. It is such a pain to watch the opportunities slip away without doing anything, such a pain.”

苏眉明白他所说的.

“Chris has changed too.” Scott露出迷惑的表情:”He f*cked that chick!”

苏眉不想接这个话茬:”he is f*cking around” Chris是个Playboy, 40几了还没结婚.

“This time he went too far. He f*cked Sally.”Scott瞪着苏眉. 见她不动声色, 便做出不想追究的神情:”ok, that is Ok. But I don’t understand him. I have known Chris for 20 plus years but I really don’t know what is going on in his mind now.”

“so?”

“So? May. Don’t pretend to be ignorant. You know everything, don’t you!” Scotts失去耐心, 他站起身把手放在苏眉的肩膀上:”you are intelligent and thorough. You got a PHD from an Ivy League, you are not someone like poor Scott, who doesn’t even have a decent degree. “ Scott上高中的时候便和当时在哥大读书Chris做了牌搭子, 两个人在桥牌比赛里大显身手, 还靠打牌赚了不少钱. Chris读书成绩不错, Scott却有些难以自拔. Chris毕业去了Morgan Stanley, Scott大学没有读完, 便到Amex上做了期权的交易员. 10几年过去, Chris拥有了每一个投资人都钦羡的那种简历, Scott则在一些自营交易公司创下优异战绩.

“what can I do for you? Scott?”苏眉有点明白Scott的来意.

“not for me, May. Not for me.”Scott摆摆手:”I am open and honest. May, tell me, do you really agree with Chris? Can you recall what we initially wanted to do when we started this fund? Do you remember what we promised to our early investors like my parents in law? We promised we would, “Scott喝一大口酒:”stick with the most liquid part of the markets, we would be nimble, be opportunistic, be focusing on where we have expertise, didn’t we?”

“Certainly we did. But Chris..”

“yes, f*ck. What is Chris doing now? He is gathering assets like crazy. We have multibillion under management now. We have no way to keep sticking with the liquid markets. We have to add these f*cking high yield bonds, convertibles, and whatever odd assets into the portfolio, which makes me sleepless.”

“Are you?” 苏眉没想到Scott的日子还这么难过.

“oh, of course. May, you were still in the school in 1998, weren’t you? So you had no experience how horrible the market will look like when liquidity is absolutely dried up. “Scott拍拍他自己的大脑袋:”oh, my, my nightmare. Chris has forgotten how he was caught up by the market back then.”

“He brought new people on board to load and trade these things. Some people I don’t really know, and don’t know how to monitor them either. I hate managing people, May.”

“He hired Jeff, Jeff is a smart guy.”苏眉提到Jeff. Jeff和Chris很亲近, 苏眉是很想知道Scott为什么把Jeff排除在今天的交谈之外.

“yes Jeff is smart. He is a geek!” Scott做了个怪脸, 流露出不太赞许的神气:” He is a PHD from MIT, certainly he is smart. But, May, let me tell you, you know what? 他把酒杯放在台子上, 做了一个向下压的手势:”If I place Jeff on the desk, he will lose money and lose, BIG!”

“I am not kidding. This smart geek has no good instinct, and even worse, I am not seeing he is on the right track to develop such instinct. I know that, and Chris knows that too.”

“Jeff likes Chris’ idea. Gathering assets, making our fund one of the biggest multi strategy hedge funds all over the world, and cocky around. Come on, May, you don’t like that idea, do you?

Scott的褐色眼睛看进她的眼睛. 苏眉不能再回避:”Yes, Scott, I am with you.”

“so, speak it up! May, you made too many concessions. You didn’t like Sally, you didn’t like Jeff. But you let them get hired!”

“Come on, Scott!”苏眉感觉很委屈. 她反对过请Sally, 也反对请Jeff. Jeff太年轻, 没有实战经验. 可是Scott不也同样让步了吗? 谁都知道Chris的个性有多强硬.

“I am not blaming you!”Scott说:”but I want to remind you we are not a one man’s shop! Look at the name on the door: Chris & associates! You and me, we have veto power, we can jointly veto any decision Chris makes! The fund was set up this way. We shouldn’t overlook that power.”

“So what do you propose?”苏眉问.

“Close the fund, turn these f*cking investors away. Oh, my , I hate these due diligence meetings so much. I couldn’t stand any longer these distractions. “Scott念着:”hire a real risk manager, someone who has real experience, geek or not, no matter. “

“Can you please let me think it over?”

“yes, you can think it over this week end” Scott不耐烦:”but let’s act fast before too late.”

“too late?”

“yes, I will not be shocked if Chris adds someone like Jeff to that veto power.”