Goodbye? Or see ya later?

And so the internship draws to a close...

When we last left our valiant heroine, she was embarking on a journey of research on hedge funds. This journey took place in the form of reading Sebastian Mallaby's More Money Than God. Once I started reading, I understood why Leena gave it to me -- in a weird, financial-y way, it is exactly what I'm interested in: 20th century cultural change. As an American Studies major, it was awesome to see how market fluctuations and the people that cause and respond to these fluctuations largely shaped American history. I finished the book at the beginning of my last week at the internship, and created a large chart for Leena about the traders mentioned in the book and their career activity, supposedly for an upcoming hedge fund exhibit. In some small way, it seems I've left my mark on the museum.

The last couple days of the internship, I worked on the Facebook project with Jennie and Alex. We created fake Facebook-style pages for various historical figures of finance. If you get the chance, look up Maria Reynolds -- trying to decide on how to list her relationship status was probably the hardest part of the project.

We visited the New York Stock Exchange two weeks ago, but this time we oversaw the floor instead of actually walking on it (VIP treatment was apparently only for Julia and me, haha). I made good use of my time by quizzing our tour guide with questions I formed while reading Mallaby. (Did you know that in Europe, they list stock prices differently? It makes sense, it's just not something one might immediately realize.) During my last day, I was supposed to go to the Federal Reserve with the rest of the group, but I had a meeting with my faculty mentor from Fordham that I had to prepare for. Bummer.

Overall, this summer has been amazing, thanks to the quality of people I've met at the museum, interns and staff alike. I've learned more about finance than I thought a measly American Studies (Cultural Products concentration)-Theology double major possibly could, and I've figured out that museums really are fun to work in -- and the smaller, the better. I'm really going to miss everyone in the office, and from the intern program; but we'll always have Facebook, plus I gave Becky and Leena the address of my new apartment in the Bronx to put me on the special events mailing list! So, this isn't "goodbye," it's most definitely a "see ya later."


Oh, and I haven't really made any money trading currency. Maybe I know a liiiiittle less about finance than I thought...

To trade or not to trade?

So, NYMEX was awesome. We took a tour of the museum they have on the ground floor of the building, then went up to oversee the trading floor. They DO still do pit trading, it's just a much lower volume than it was before the advent of the internet. I didn't see too much hand signaling, but there were a lot of beefy, red-faced guys yelling at each other from a distance of less than a foot, so it was still entertaining. I told Leena that I'd be interested in trying that, and from the look on her face, I'd definitely get trampled. (The urge to make a Biblical reference to Daniel and the lion's den is pretty strong . . . Oops, I just did.)

This Wednesday, we visited the Museum of the City of New York. I had been there before, but only briefly during the Museum Mile festival for the tail end of the Charles Addams exhibit, so it was cool to be able to explore all three levels of the building. The best exhibit (really, the only good one) they had was about the NYC mayor during the '60s, John Lindsay. He was like the JFK of NYC, and not only was the exhibit really impressively set up, the objects and documents they had displayed were really cool as well. I had never heard of him, but the tour guide was informative and told us the entire Democratic love story.

I haven't blogged much lately because I've just been bouncing around the museum, helping out with whatever needed to be done. That means that I've gotten to spend some QT with Jess and Julia in the library, and with Sumati and Angelica in front of iMovie. We finished updating the library today, which was pretty exciting for me -- but way more so for Jess and Julia, considering that that project has been their baby for about a month. Sumati also finished interning yesterday, so I hope she and Angelica were able to finish their video! I spent a lot of time showing them the video equipment and software, but I didn't get to see the finished project. Today, I am starting research on hedge funds for an as-of-yet unnamed project.

As for trading, I am getting a late start, because I just got in the game today. I opened a position of 200,000 units selling USD/CHF, because the graph looked like it was beginning to peak, and I personally believe the price is going to go down. I set my boundaries really far apart, if for no other reason that to just be able to keep a position open for more than a few hours. Also, as incentive to stay current with the news, I opened a position of 200,000 buying EUR/USD, because DailyFX said that the dollar is getting stronger. Again, I want to keep this position open just to be able to monitor market fluctuations, so my boundaries are huge. Wish me luck!

A picture's worth a thousand of John's books

So I most definitely did not win the trading contest (not that I expected to). Over the last couple days, I've been bouncing around the museum, since everyone else was finishing up projects they were working on while I was at camp. Friday, I scanned a bunch of photos into the computer and put them up on the museum's Flickr, then helped Sumati and Jess learn iMovie (which is still SO frustrating and not user-friendly). Today, I was in the aud with Alex and Jennie, sorting through books from John's collection and figuring out what belonged to the museum. It was fun to see what kind of books John just had laying around in storage, but I think I may have dust in my lungs after all that. I was surprised by how much we were getting rid of too! It seems like a shame, but then again, I guess I wouldn't want the 1976 tax records of John Doe either.

Tomorrow, we are going to NYMEX! That's the New York Mercantile Exchange, for those of you that aren't fluent in finance jargon (hi, Mom). I wouldn't be this excited, except I have seen the video that's a part of the NYMEX exhibit far too many times and I want to watch the pit traders sign to each other. Except I can't remember if they even do that anymore . . .

Bon voyage, mes currencies!

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've been on here! Okay, so let's catch up:

Three weeks ago, Ashraf and I headed off to the basement to start our Collections rotation. We learned the basics of PastPerfect (with the gracious help of Jason), and started getting our grimy paws all over old documents and books. We also watched a movie with Ewan MacGregor, which was didactic and poorly acted - read: overall worthwhile to watch. Unfortunately, I did not get the gold star in trading that week, partially because I didn't stay current with forex news and mostly because I was preparing for . . .

CAMP. I realize that this blog is most definitely not the forum to discuss my experiences as a counselor at the Muscular Dystrophy Summer Camp, but let it suffice to say that I would be hard-pressed to pick which unpaid activity I did this summer that I liked better. The unfortunate part was that it took me away from the museum for a week and a half, a period during which every staff member forgot my name and distinctive features. Kidding, but still.

So this week, I made my valiant return to New York late Tuesday night, at 2 a.m. via Megabus (running two hours behind schedule, naturally). I arrived at the museum on Wednesday morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed (of course) and spent the day updating the museum's Flickr with photos of objects and exhibits, using some fancy HTML - but all of this took place AFTER visiting the Bloomberg building! Which is THE. COOLEST. EVER. Seriously. I probably wouldn't argue with them if they wanted to hire me . . . Mostly because my mouth would be full of the free food. We toured the building, learned about company dynamics (which are a little intrusive but totally chill) and had a short seminar on what Bloomberg is and basics on how to use the terminal. Overall, my first day back was great - eeeeven though I finished out the month with a loss of $2,261. I am definitely going to be a better intern and a better trader for this next contest.

Anyway, it's late and I'm off to bed to wake up and get ready for I mean, to blog about another exciting day at the MOAF!

Buying, and bulls, and bears - oh my!

So my trade closed out last night and I profited about $200.00, which left me about $1400 in the hole still. I opened a position of 100,000 units buying EUR/USD, and accidentally clicked and closed it ten minutes later (while Leena and Becky were watching - real professional of you there, Kel.) I was not profiting (of course) when I closed it, so I am currently $1557.04 down.

Never the one to give up, I went right back to it and opened a position of 100,000 units buying CHF/JPY, based on logic that seems somewhat elusive to me now. Looking at a one day candlestick chart, CHF/JPY has been bouncing aroung 80.00 for a while. It's currently above that, but the chart looks pretty volatile, so I made sure to set my boundaries pretty wide, in hopes that I'll be able to keep a trade open for more than twelve hours, regardless of profit . . . It's all a learning experience, right? I've noticed that this game is way less fun when you're not profiting, and, believe me, I haven't made a substantial profit yet.

This morning, Julia and I got to follow around Ashraf and Jess as they traipsed through the Financial District in period dress, brandishing brochures and advertising the museum. It was fun for a while, but only a few people even looked twice at the costumes. New Yorkers are just too jaded sometimes, y'know? Julia and I, to be productive, took photos while Jess and Ashraf handed out flyers and even free admission passes, and Julia wrote a blog post to go along with the photos. After lunch, I prepared the video to go up on YouTube. It's currently publishing, so get excited! I also came up with a list of potential Facebook friends for the museum; I felt like a matchmaker for business organizations. Who knows, maybe the museum will get to take Reuters out for coffee one afternoon.

You win some, you lose most of them.

My trade closed out overnight, leaving me with a deficit of 1610.57. Ouch.

I've decided to finally take the plunge (you gotta win sometime, right?) and start trading USD/CAD. Overall, the trend has been on the decline, but it seems like it's bouncing up a little. Since the trend has been too up-and-down to make any real profit, I'm only doing a position of 100,000, and mostly to prove my word from before. I'm buying the pair, and I'll have to keep an eye on it tonight.

In other intern news, Julia and I finished the video today! Leena, Becky, and Kristin all watched it and liked it. SO glad to be done, and have something to show for it! It should be posted tomorrow. I think we're doing a mini project tomorrow, and then next week we are starting our new rotations.

Euronly live once...

I made one trade today, in an attempt to get myself back into the market headfirst. I had finished the weekend with a loss of $734.57, because I was away for the weekend and all my trades closed themselves out. I decided, after reading this article, to buy 200,000 units of EUR/USD. (I still don't have the jargon down...) I set my limits moderately high and low, so I can watch it for a while without it closing itself. I started the trade at 1.23450 (coolest price ever) and right now I'm breaking exactly even. My stop loss is set at 1.23000 and my take profit is 1.23747. Over the past day and the past few hours it's been on the upswing, so I'll continue to watch it today to see what happens. I think that the fiasco with Greece's rating right now may impact the price level, as evidenced by this article, but the retaliation that the article highlights will hopefully make the euro stronger.