On the 2nd of April, Our CEO zeyu Li was invited by The Strategic Investment Society of The Chinese University of Hong Kong to successfully deliver a brilliant speech on the topic of Trading and the Blunt truth about Investment banks.

An investment banking career has always been an attractive option for university graduates. While competition for these positions can be downright ferocious, the profession remains a highly lucrative option for young professionals looking for an entry executive-level experience.

Zeyu suggests to students that they should have a deeper understanding of what they truly want rather than simply follow the crowd or get lured by some short-term benefits, such as high salaries.

It was an eye-opening session for students to learn that winning probability was not the most important factors for a professional trader to make money. What matters most is how to manage risks and how to consistently beat the market via the market logic and principles.

The seminar, which was titled How to Beat the Market: Authentic Experience from a Professional Trader and Principles to Build-up a Shining Career, not only shared Zeyu’s own experience as a professional trader and risk taker, but also contained a series of perceptive career advices from Zeyu.

In this talk, Zeyu shared with audiences his logical framework on why many professional traders and hedge fund manager blow up. Then, he showed them how in reality he gradually built up his own trading strategies that can consistently “beat the market” and how you can apply these principles to other areas such as starting a business.

Key takeaways of his talk include answers to the following questions:

1. Why professional traders/hedge fund managers blow up? What are the logical framework and practical approaches to prevent the blow-up from happening?

2. Does successful trading necessarily mean high winning probability? What is true definition of a trading edge, via which one can beat the market? How to obtain this edge in reality?

3. How to apply some of the abovementioned risk principles and logic to areas other than trading, such as selling and starting a business? For instance, Zeyu shared with students how he applied these principles to his current entrepreneurial adventure.

The seminar has been a very successful one with an active discussion atmosphere. The students feel encouraged by Zeyu’s sharing with the extracted essence. They have more confidence and courage to create their own future after listening to the presentation. We are also very encouraged by the enthusiastic response and recognition from the students.

The lecture, which is entitled How to Beat the Market: Authentic Experience from a Professional Trader and Principles to Build-up a Shining Career, not only indicates Zeyu’s own experience as a professional trader and risk taker, but also includes some insightful advices about career planning from Zeyu.

During the presentation, Zeyu shared with students the following subjects via real life cases:

1. Why many professional traders/hedge fund managers blow up and how to prevent that from happening;

2. What is the logical framework for trading successfully?

3. How he has learnt from predecessors, verified their conclusions in reality, gained from various mistakes, and finally come up with his own trading strategies that can consistently beat the market.

Throughout the presentation, Zeyu summarized the key principles to build up a shining career path, including principles on managing risks, on making mistakes wisely, on developing EQ, and so on.

According to students’ feedbacks, they gained an extensive exposure in how professional traders worked, and their understanding of the career in investment banks was cultivated substantially.

AF Academy’s background
PolyU's AF Academy is an exclusive and highly selective programme designed to groom their top students into top-of-the-list graduate candidates.

Our CEO and Founder Mr. Zeyu Li was invited by the Business and Economics Association HKUSU in the University of Hong Kong to give a seminar at the event "Career Panorama" On 28th Feb 2016.

Zeyu used 3 real examples of his friends’ business failures to illustrate 3 vital principles to successfully start a business:

1. Misunderstanding between winning probability and success – what are the key factors that contribute to the success of an entrepreneur;

2. Start too fast and too big – when taking risk, rule number 1 is to ensure your survivorship;

3. Making mistakes wisely – verifying the most important assumptions first.

For many students with the sparks of enthusiasm of start a business, they were struggling with moving beyond the idea phase. Zeyu also shared with students how he started Essence Educational from scratch, and how to applied the above principles to his current entrepreneurial explore.

On 25th Jan 2016, Our CEO Mr. Zeyu Li was invited by the Business Club in Hong Kong Polytechnic University to deliver a presentation titled “Why Startups Fail---- Successfully starting a business is like kissing frogs.” Zeyu drew an analogy between starting a business and kissing frogs:

Like successfully starting a business, kissing a frog and getting a prince/princess is a low probability event. Only those who have the courage to take projects with low winning probability and have the resilience to continuously kiss the frogs can finally find their princes or princesses.

Zeyu cited 3 examples of his friends’ businesses to illustrate 3 vital principles to successfully start a business 1. Misunderstanding between winning probability and success;

2. When exploring new things, making mistakes is inevitable; thus, give room for mistakes;

3. Verifying the most important assumptions first and fast.

Students were quite inspired by Zeyu’s profound but funny lecture. Some testimonies are quoted as below:

“I am grateful to you for delivering a really passionate speech today. What you shared is really useful and will motivate me to achieve my dream as an entrepreneur. In addition, I have just downloaded the app (Qiu Bai Dan Ci Tong) which will help me a lot in preparing for GMAT. “

The title of the presentation is "Why Traders/ Hedge Fund Managers Blow up and How to Beat the Market".

Zeyu shared with the students his logical framework on why many professional traders and hedge fund manager blow up.

Then, he showed how in reality he gradually built up his own trading strategies that can consistently "beat the market" and how to apply some of these principles to other areas such as selling and starting a business.

Zeyu received a cordial welcome and got great feedbacks from the students in PolyU after the presentation:

"It is my great pleasure to attend your sharing session. When I talked with my friends after the session, we all think the same—the sharing was so attracting, interactive and instructive that can seldom be found in any other place. Thank you for offering us such a wonderful learning opportunity! "

“Personally, I want to thank you for the principle and thinking methodology you conveyed to us tonight. They are not simply about becoming an Equity Trader in an Investment Bank, rather, they are so invaluable things that might influence the ways people do things and they are essential premises to the success of many things.”

In last July, our CEO Zeyu was invited to give a lecture at the SWUFE 2015 International Student Forum held by Southwest University of Finance and Economics in China.

The speech was named ‘Why Startups Fail - Successfully starting a business is like kissing frogs’.

The speech covered the following topics:

Misunderstanding between winning probability and success – what are the key factors that contribute to the success of an entrepreneur;

Start too fast and too big – when taking risk, rule number 1 is to ensure your survivorship;

Making mistakes wisely – verifying the most important assumptions first;