Day 4, 05/19/11

Today we did not have to go in early, yet we went to a lunch meeting with my step-dad and president and CEO of First Southwest company. This was also a very important lunch because we talked about the business, his past throughout the company, and what type of decisions he makes everyday. We talked about past events that have happened in the company when the stock market was low. This was also an important day cause we learned about what it takes to be successful in this business.

Day 3, 05/18/11

Today we went in again at 8:30, and finally finished the spreadsheet, after finishing we went to lunch again with Mr. Muschalek, we spent most of the afternoon, eagerly asking questions and learning more about the business, this was probably the most influential day because today we gathered the most information about how the business works. Today we did not do a lot of work but we definitely learned a lot about Southwest and investment banking.

Day 2, 05/17/11

Arrived at the office at 8:30, just like very other day. This excel sheet is still not done, so we resume our work on the spreadsheet, and then lunch time rolled around again, with another one of our co-workers, we enjoyed campisis, which was a good experience because our co-worker had a different outlook on the work life at the office, because he was not as high up as our mentor was. He worked in the operations room, where he scanned and traded stocks. After lunch we took a break from the never-ending spreadsheet, and we started working on dualigence, background checks on clients and future correspondents. This is important because whenever there is money involved there will be people who are looking out for themselves and trying to scam the companies who are involved. After another long day at the office we headed back home.

Day 1, 05/16/11

Today Zach and I took a tour of the office with our mentor, Mr. Muschalek, Head of clearing at Plains Capital for Southwest. After having an in-depth tour of the office Zach and I started working on Microsoft excel, it was super exciting. This excel sheet consisted of a correspondent trading and selling bonds. We had to separate by cu-sips by month in order to prove the company owed money from the correspondent. This task took us the whole day because we were new to this task. Mr. Muschalek took us out for lunch at the tower club to further explain the business of what Southwest does. After lunch we kept up our hard work on the excel sheet. and after a long day at the office I went home.