JAKE'S HOME PAGE

News:
I have accepted a job at Lehman Brothers as a programmer analyst.

I spent the summer working as an assistant database designer at Morgan Stanley, a large investment bank.

A bit about myself:

My resume, in PDF format.

Short !

I like finance. Check out some of my favorite sites:

"To suppose that the value of a common stock is determined purely by
a corporation's earnings discounted by the relevant interest rate
and adjusted for the marginal tax rate is to forget that people
have burned witches, gone to war on a whim, risen to the defense
of Joseph Stalin, and believed Orson Welles when he told them over
the radio that the Martians had landed. Investors are prone to be
bullish at the top of the market when prices are high, and bearish
at the bottom when prices are low. Like war, speculation is a
social activity. It is carried on by groups."

-Paul Macrae Montgomery

Personal finance is the best kind of finance. But it can also be the hardest. Take a peek at these pages and you will see what I mean. Warning! Following this link can be dangerously educational.

Understanding and Controlling Your Finances

My thoughts on the portfolio I am managing and my short positions in Netscape and America Online are pretty well summed up in the Biotech section of this Morgan Stanley paper: http://www.ms.com/misc/inet/morganx1.html

If you are looking for a discount broker, I highly recommend EBroker or Datek. Low price, good for the investor who knows what they want and doesn't need any hand-holding.

Check out the paper I wrote on Speculative Bubbles.

In six months time I will be working for an investment banking firm on Wall Street:

I finally saw The Fountainhead, and now I know that at least I think I understand Ayn Rand. I am reading the book. It's great. Howard Roark is a loner/hero kinda guy. Here are some quotes from the movie that I thought were representative of Ayn Rand's ideas:

At the construction site:

"Mr Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me, in any words you wish?"
"But I don't think of you."

After his career takes off:

"No, All those years I found some one man who wanted my work. One man who saw through his own eyes and thought with his own brain. Such men may be rare, they may be unknown, but they move the world."

When he is asked to do a project for charity:

"No. A man who works for others without payment is a slave. I do not believe that slavery is noble. Not in any form. Nor for any purpose whatsoever."