Making money, it seems, is all about the velocity of moving it around, so that it can exist in Hong Kong one moment and Wall Street a split second later.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
What Wall Street is, they're market makers. Wall Street's business model is making money on velocity of money. They're a click industry. That's what Wall Street is. They make a lot of money when there's a lot of turnover. And they make a lot of money when that velocity is fast.
If you look at some of the smaller capital markets in Asia, when they want funding, they either come here to Hong Kong or they go to California, the mecca of the Internet, because they can capture the liquidity and then move on and do what they want to do, which is develop a business.
In Hong Kong, the property business has always been very competitive, so we have to think of ways to get an edge over our competitors.
The people of Hong Kong are criticized for only being interested in business, but it's the only thing they've been allowed to do.
As I talk with the Chinese on currency, I encourage them to move much more quickly with opening up their capital markets to competition, because I don't believe the world is going to give them as much time as they would like.
High-frequency traders are firms all around the world. They're massive investments. And there is an incredible race for speed now. People are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to shave milliseconds off.
Hong Kong has always been a dynamic and exciting and high-energy city, and it has that New York thing going on, and people here care about how they look.
In truth, Wall Street is in for a radical makeover. Fewer people, lower margins, lower risk, lower compensation - and ultimately, fewer talented people. It is likely to change the culture of an industry that for nearly a century has been the money center of the world.
Wall Street is populated by a bunch of people whose primary goal is to make money, and the rules are pretty much caveat emptor.
Be realistic and truthful - and tell Hong Kong businessmen honestly that they should go for long-term investments since it is unlikely money can be made in the short haul.