Index finger

The alarm went off at the usual time of 5.30am this morning. This time though I had to wake up to get to a 7.30am breakfast at 1 Macquarie Place. Level 31 offers an unbelievable view of the Harbour Bridge. Sometimes I forget that I live in Sydney. It's easy to forget when you don't see the water.

It was a struggle to make it to the train station by 6.30am. I didn't. I missed the 6.40am ish train which would have given me enough time to get to the breakfast meeting on time. But there was no way I would leave without preparing my daily cup of coffee. Irish Flavoured!

I was the last one to get there but I made it. And Sharon sat me next to the head portfolio manager which I thought was quite flattering. (I am watching The Good Sheperd right now. I used to love Angelina Jolie. Back in the days when she played second fiddle to Winona Ryder and people noticed her for her acting, not her lips and her husband Brad Pitt). Back to the meeting, we were given the option of either a "hot" breakfast or a "cold" breakfast. Damn it I woke up early for this so I asked for a hot brekky. The three words I always love to hear in the morning - bacon and eggs! Not to mention I learnt something about indexed hedge funds while I was there.

I managed to turn it into a story. The $US5 billion dollars they raised in two years. And the new commodity-style hedge funds they're going to track.

A few hours later I get a call from BT's head of the alternative investments saying the guy was talking bullshit about not paying performance fees because that's still factored in the index. I think it's great that he called in to share his views but it makes me wonder how people can be selective about what information they provide. I'm not specifically talking about this BT guy but that one of the hardest bit about being a journo is making your judgement about what story to pursue regardless of how the data is given to you.

It was an incredibly stressful day in that I didn't even have time for a full lunch (as usual though I went to my favourite takeaway place for pork chop and vegetable rice. Something different from my usual chicken and hainanese rice.

Skipped the Managed Accounts conference. Shame. But there's only so much time during the day.

Tomorrow's a new day. I've got two coffee meetings to go to. Wish I could go out on Thursday night but nobody wants to go out on a worknight!