January 16 - January 20, 2007
During the second week of January 2007, Johnson School students were in the financial capital of the world, New York City, participating in the 21st annual Johnson School's "Week on Wall Street."

The trek included a full schedule of meetings with major business leaders from companies whose corporate headquarters are located in New York City. Despite their packed schedule, the students still found time to mix work and fun during their week in New York.

Here is a glimpse of what their schedule entailed:

Day 1 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)
After weeks of preparation and built up excitement, the "Week on Wall Street" kicked-off at 7:45 AM at the Morgan Stanley building in midtown NYC. Listening to world renowned Chief Economist Stephen Roach and the Morgan Stanley team give their rundown of the current state of the economy was impressive and insightful. The session was very informative and educational and it was exciting to hear the views of such a prominent figure at one of the most respected investment banks on Wall Street.

We then rushed over to Bear Stearns Asset Management to hear about the convergence of private equity and hedge funds at 9:00 AM. Four panelists, with extremely impressive backgrounds, led an interactive session where we discussed the emergence of private equity and hedge funds in the coming years. In an informative and motivating presentation, the private equity team members discussed private equity and the many challenges that will emerge in the future. The session was a lot of fun and a great opportunity for students interested in private equity and hedge funds to learn about the future direction of this industry.

After a long lunch break, we met at Credit Suisse for the final presentation of the day. Former neurosurgeon and head of the carbon trading division at Credit Suisse, Paul Ezekial enlightened us about the exciting new field of "Carbon Gas Emissions Trading." Mr. Ezekial shared his expertise in the field of carbon trading through a motivating yet interactive presentation, in which he outlined the opportunities within this new type of trading. It was easy to see his passion for the field as he spoke about both the economic and environmental benefits of this innovative approach to the markets.

The day was very exciting and a lot of fun. It not only gave us an opportunity to learn about the trends driving investors, but also to interact with some of the most prominent people on Wall Street. Now its time to go get some rest and get ready for another great day with JPMorgan, Oppenheimer Capital, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers tomorrow.

Scott Brewster, MBA '07

Day 2 (Wednesday, January 17, 2007)

The day started out with excited Capital Markets and Asset Management (CMAM) Johnson students visiting JP Morgan's Quantitative Derivative and Cross-Asset Analysis group. Eager Johnson students refreshed by New York City's brisk weather and large doses of caffeine enjoyed learning how JP Morgan compares the relationship of various securities across the capital structure and acts to generate alpha when the relationship is breached. The event was not only interesting, informative but a forecaster of a changing market dynamic in which fundamental analysis and quantitative analysis is conducted across all asset classes. The lucky CMAM people were given a glimpse into the future of investing.

Oppenheimer Capital was next on our roster of hits, and boy do the hits keep coming! The portfolio at Oppenheimer was a well spoken gentleman who told things bluntly but with a grain a humor, a large grain. The discussion started out with a discussion of dentistry (yes dentistry) and how to leverage different people to extract the optimum value from professional services. The discussion continued and ranged from skill set acquisition for young professionals to a question and answer segment on everything from alternative investments to stock picking methods. This trip was certainly the highlight of the day as the well-mannered and well-humored speaker provided intellectual conversation and much more, free lunch.

The following presentation was on equity structured products at Citigroup. The speakers gave some helpful insider tips on the daily life of a trader at Citigroup and in particular within equity products. They also cold called various students to drill out answers of an assigned homework case. While other speakers took the winter Week on Wall Street assignments and built upon them, these two speakers just fired away questions. At least we were all prepared!

The blip on the track of Week on Wall Street was soon erased as we had a pleasant time at Lehman Brothers. Technical analysis, long regarded as the witch craft of charting and trading, was dissected by leading technicians on Wall Street. Adding to our new skill set was a discussion on who looks at technical analysis and why; thus ended out second day at the Week on Wall Street.

As the day ended the Johnson students' couldn't help but think how much they gained this week and how much further they have to go. We all thank the hard work done by Professor Andolina in setting this week up and look forward to accelerating out careers by our new knowledge base, fueled of course by diligence, persistence and caffeine.

James Alexander Profestas

Day 3 (Thursday, January 18, 2007)

It's 4:45 a.m. and I awake to the sound of my blackberry alarm. Regretting that I missed two of the sessions the previous day due to train trouble, I was not going to miss the opportunity to be on the NYSE trading floor. It was our earliest call time (7:25 a.m.) when the class met just outside 55 Broad Street where Cornell University has a top secret class room that was really more like a large New York City apartment stocked with food and beverages. In this prep session we reviewed some of the recent changes to the NYSE, in particular the merger with Archipelago (Arca) has transformed it into a hybrid market where the open out cry trade which can take about 30 seconds to complete is still accessible, but auto-exchange trades have come to dominate because they can be made in milliseconds.

After a heavy security check-in process that provided us with three separate badges (including one with our photo - great souvenir!) we headed to a room where we met with some NYSE staff who gave us more information on the auto-exchange phenomenon. Finally, we headed to the trading floor. In my mind, I had pictured what we've all seen in the movies: papers flying everywhere, grown adults screaming, people sprinting across the floor. Sadly, we did not get that experience. While on the floor, we were broken into small groups and placed with a specialist (the market maker) who told us more about the different players on the floor and his job. Because much of the trading is moving to auto-exchange, there is has been a decline in volume of trading on the NYSE floor and a decreasing need for the specialist.

Our next stop was UBS where we met with Cornell alumnus David Palmer who spoke with us about analyzing common stocks. As part of our Week on Wall Street assignments, we had to perform a common stock analysis on Yum Brands and during this session with David we reexamined the stock and he shared his views and analysis on the stock as well.

The last stop of this rather long day was Morgan Stanley where we were to again, discuss a case we'd been assigned the week prior. The Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) case was by far my favorite assignment and so that made this visit that much more interesting. CMBS is an asset backed security that is backed by a bundle of mortgages on commercial real estate. It is an area that has been growing in recent years, topping $200 billion in issuance last year and expected to be over $250 billion in issuance for 2007. The speakers we heard from were able to address our specific questions about CMBS and the case we worked on. With standing room only in the small conference room, the Morgan Stanley reps did not keep us long. They must have been able to see the exhaustion in our faces and so most of us were grateful they did.

Adrienne Martinez