"World Famous For 15 Minutes”
(In another lifetime, I was a Head of Research at Dao Heng Securities, Hong Kong in the late 1990s.)
My long day had started earlier than usual at 430 am when I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out to the Channel News Asia broadcasting studio for the Breakfast Market RoundUp.
When I was sitting in the make up chair being powdered up for my “15 minutes of fame” the somewhat cheery (it was already 5am!) host dropped by. She told me she was going to ask me about :
where the Hang Seng Index would go (I had already flipped a coin, 😜-it was Heads so the HSI was going UP today),
the prospects for the property market (In property investment crazy HK, “Always Up, of course !” is the politically correct answer ) and, last but not least
my 3 stock tips for their early morning viewers (who no doubt were tucking into their Pei Tan Jook - Cantonese for Century Egg Porridge ) as we chatted
No problemo, I told my host, a middle aged media veteran. You see, Yours Truly wrote a weekly Stock Tips column for Ming Pao , a respectable Chinese paper (Back in Hong Kong in the 1990s, a quick way to know you were reading a quality newspaper like Ming Pao was the absence of Ahem, (please excuse me if you are going to be offended 😜) of pictures of pretty well endowed♀️ in various stages of undress from Cat 3 films)
I did my spiel before the CNA cameras and headed to work in CBD. My immediate boss SF said I did OK on TV but why was there a scrolling line at the bottom of the screen, “ Raymond Chong and/ or Dao Heng Securities may or may not have a position in the listed stocks mentioned “.
(Unlike the TVB stropes of successful career women being obnoxious dragon ♀️, SF was the exact antithesis. Like many professional women working in finance, SF was of course always “dressed for success” in 💲💲💲 couture. But she was friendly, smiled a lot and generally was an optimistic person).
Over the next few hours, some of the institutional sales team trooped by my tiny office to congratulate me on my maiden TV performance as a market commentator. But they kept asking Yours Truly the same Question.
Two of them were ex-DBS Hong Kong IBD. PS I was also an ex-DBS Singapore Investment Banking Department grunt ie a junior employee in unit trust marketing
Over dinner that night my Tai Tai aka my 😍🥰😁 Better Half mischievously asked me if she had married a crook? She brought up the same Question also. She had seen a recorded video of my 15 minutes of fame
You see in those days, there was an Internet craze going around in HK. People were making serious tons of money by listing internet stocks, Even Mr Li KaShing. Hong Kong’s richest tycoon, got a listing for Tom.com.
But some US investment analysts had recently been caught up in a scandal. They were fingered red handed on self incriminating emails trashing the SAME internet stocks they had just put Buy recommendations on TV. 🤪
Ordinary investors who had bought and lost $$$ were of course outraged. Payback was quick. Some of the analysts involved in the emails lost their jobs aka WERE BANNED FOR LIFE from working as securities analysts. TV stations quickly required rolling on screen disclaimers whenever analysts were on TV talking about Stock Tips . See;
https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bswzzwy2s9zuvvhth43k/culture/henry-blodget-was-banned-from-the-financial-industry-so-he-built-a-financial-media-empire
I told my 🥰😍😁Tai Tai aka Better Half then more than 25 years ago , “I Am Not A Crook”. The rolling disclaimer playing just inches under my face was “just the media playing it safe by covering their corporate AXXes”
Post Script
Andy Warhol was a world famous pop artist. Think of his iconic Campbell Soup Cans or his equally well known series of Marilyn Monroe prints. He was also known for being misquoted, “ Everyone is world famous for 15 minutes of fame”
Of course you might have ALREADY guessed I was never asked again to appear on the CNA Breakfast RoundUp. Some of you probably also figured out CNA’s regular #1 pick PROBABLY had a scheduling conflict and the #2 pick had suddenly called in sick. So CNA probably had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for their #3 pick aka Yours Truly.
For more brownie points and a chance to meet me in person for coffee, can you perhaps tell me which former Occupant of the White House said “I am not a crook”. I think he regretted saying that on national TV. 🤪
