Signs of the Times

（编者按：《华尔街疯人日记》(Memoirs of a Minyan)是财经信息网站Minyanville.com创始人托德•哈里森(Todd Harrison)的回忆录。Harrison讲述了他从摩根士丹利交易员到对冲基金合伙人再到网络媒体人的职业生涯，冷眼剖析了华尔街对金钱的错误崇拜。从7月6日起，《华尔街日报》中文网将每天刊登其中的一个章节，敬请关注。点击阅读已发表章节。）胜利撤退在Cramer Berkowitz工作就像活在一场真人秀里，其荒诞离奇之处，假如不是亲身经历，根本想象不出来。我只希望谁有先见之明，能预先把它拍下来。吉姆把越来越多的精力放在媒体上，频频在TheStreet.com和CNBC电视节目中亮相。对此我没啥意见─反正距离拿大笔奖金的日子越来越近了。回过头来看，吉姆同时处理那么多事情的能力令人赞叹；但在当时，我觉得他有些分心。一天，吉姆正靠在椅子上打电话，话筒紧紧贴在耳朵上。我隔着桌子冲他喊，提醒他当前的交易操作与市场走势唱反调。他看到我想引起他的注意力，于是冲我做了个翘大拇指的手势，然后把手掩在话筒上，说：“我喜欢这公司─买吧！”当我告诉他，我们正在积极卖空这只股票时，他又点头认可，给我打手势，彷佛在说：“卖，卖，卖！”我不打算谈更多这种工作上的往来细节。但随着2000年底的临近，我很想划上一个圆满的句号，给投资者结算回报，让自己拿到奖金。吉姆是一列活生生会喘气的过山车，而我急于从车上下来。随着年末指日可待，我们做出一个集体决策，减少交易，坐在高高的钱堆上，等着一年的结束。这是一个审慎的决策，我们把组合风险降至最低，并达成共识，只交易那些最好的市场机会。杰夫马特•雅各布斯和我似乎很快就掌握了这一理念，但我很快就发现，教一只老狗新招数是很难的。下节预告：分道扬镳


Victory laps and big steps backLife at Cramer Berkowitz was like living in a reality show, a surreal story you couldn't possibly fathom unless you saw it with your own eyes. I only wish someone had the foresight to film it.Jim's focus increasingly shifted towards his growing media presence on TheStreet.com and CNBC. That was fine by me -- the clock was ticking towards a rather large payday. In hindsight, his ability to juggle so many tasks was an amazing accomplishment. At the time, I viewed his attention as splintered at best.One day, I yelled across the desk to Jim as he leaned back in his chair with the phone pressed against his ear and alerted him that we were making a bet against the market. He saw me vying for his attention, gave me a thumbs-up and placed his hand over the receiver. 'I love 'em here -- go!'When I informed him that we were aggressively shorting the tape, he nodded his head in agreement and made gestures with his hands as if to say, 'Sell, sell, sell!I have no agenda in sharing the details of those professional interactions. As we edged towards the end of 2000, however, I had an intense agenda to finish the year and get our investors and myself paid. He was a living, breathing rollercoaster and I desperately wanted to get off.As the year's end flickered in the distance, we collectively made a decision to trade less, sit on our outsized gains and ride out the calendar. It was a prudent decision; we pared our book to minimal risk and agreed to trade only the very best edges.Jeff, Matt Jacobs and I seemed to grasp that concept but as I would quickly learn, it's hard to teach an old dog a new shtick.