A course on Derivatives

This course was an interesting one as compared to the one I attended the week before, because it was on derivatives. It reduced the number of question marks I have now on derivatives. And at least, now I can safely say that "Hey, I understand the gist of how the product works now." No longer an empty coconut as compared to the past, but a coconut filled with good water now. *wink wink* hahaha


It was a tedious 2-day course though, but efforts paid off. I was perhaps the most inquisitive and talkative student for these 2 days as everyone was so quiet. Everyone just sat quietly and looked blankly at the trainer. I guess the biggest challenge and perhaps agony for a trainer is to come across a classroom of students who does not respond to him and he has totally no idea whether the students are receptive to the information and whether they understand him. I was a trainer before, thus, I can empthasize with him.

My feel was: - either the participants felt that the course was irrelevant to them (then why did they attend the course in the 1st place? Wouldn't it be a waste of their time and trainer's time?) or they are already the experts on this subject or they just felt that the course was too boring. And I am the only ignorant one who hardly knows anything about the subject. Well...that is why I signed up for the course. I guess the other reason was because I was so fascinated by how the banking system works, how the world of structured products work and how a strong system like this can suddenly collapse.
This seemed like a 2-days course just between me and the trainer - he asked questions and I answered. I guess, all is takes is to be a little thickskinned and "Oops, I am sorry" when you realised that you have asked the wrong questions and "Oh, thank you very much" when you asked a good and relevant questions. Stress right? When everyone seemed to shut off and I suddenly become the focus for the trainer's FQAs. But I guess he was quite appreciative of my efforts, or else he will be talking to the wall for the entire of 2 days. "Brilliant!" and "Wow, our class has a genius" were some of the common remarks I got from him throughout the 2-days course. The tricks worked, I guess, at least they prompted me to ask him more questions, allowing him to show off his expertise. Win-win situation, if I may say.

By the way, as I was having a very bad cold for the whole of 2nd day, the trainer was kind and bought something for my nose, offered them to me in front of the whole class, and I was "Wow, thank you...but...ermmm, is ok, I already have my dose of drugs".