(Originally posted on February 22nd 2010)

Today the person who started the first hedge fund at Nomura Capital died aged 46. Recently the newspapers were filled with an equity trader at Deustche bank who committed suicide. He was aged 24. I don’t know which Billy Joel song suits this better. “Under Pressure” or “Only the good die young.” Either way the banks will be singing “We didn’t start the fire.”
Will the pressure of working in the Hedge Funds and Equity affect me? I know it nearly killed me. During the financial crisis I must have hardly slept for 3 hours a day and possibly 18- 20 hours on the weekend. My whole life revolved around Bloomberg. I would be awake for the opening of the European markets at home. I would be at work for the opening of the US markets. I would see the close of the American markets at home. I would be awake for the Asian markets. I was going through my Divorce at the same time. I am really surprised that my heart did not give in. I put on tonnes of weight though. I went for a weight loss programme in India and it helped me. I went from a 46 inch waist to a 36 now. After that there were checks and balances I put into place. Writing this blog was one of them. The other is I do not deal with work from Friday evening when I leave work unless it is an absolute emergency. I do not watch any news from Friday evening to Monday morning.
When I was 7, the famous mathmatician and astrologer predicted that I would be in the finance world. Apparently my parents laughed it off. 20 years later I landed in the heart of it. Few years back I met her. She said I would be a big man and would live to be 86. I believe in numerology more than astrology. In case I do die this year then I have written a note and sealed it. If things change then I may destroy it. Otherwise it is good till the year end.