Feng Shui (风水)

Feng Shui (风水) is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement in attempt to achieve harmony with the environment. As its Chinese characters stated “Wind and Water”, it believes that wind and water surrounding could affect one’s fortune. While the placement and arrangement of one place or stuffs could affect one’s feeling and consequently his fortune, there is a logical and scientific reasoning behind it. Take an example, if your house is facing directly to the main road, residents of the house would not stay calmly. This is because they feel unsecured and worried whether the car might accidentally crash into their house. The result, their mental would not in the peace and calm state and this could lead to the unwanted “luck” to them.

Feng Shui is the knowledge passed by the intelligent people generations by generations and its value could not be undermined. The problem in this era is, there are too many people under coat of Feng Shui and proclaim themselves as a Feng Shui practitioner to help people. But in reality, they act more like sales people. When the problem could be solve simply by placing something inexpensive, they would suggest their client to buy from them, the stuffs that could solve their problem. The suggested stuffs normally would not cost cheap. At the same time, the more technical terms they are using, they seem more professional. Why? This is because for the ordinary people, the more you talk that they do not understand, the more respect you will gain from them. And again, the consulting fee is not inexpensive as well. The most successful Feng Shui Master is no longer the master stay in the deeper part of the mountain nowadays but they will appear in your television screen. Their show is more like a talk show. They act more like an actress rather than a practitioner of Feng Shui. They become celebrities of the mass media. The most dazzling part as the Feng Shui practitioners is, no matter what they say to their client, be it right or wrong, they would not be sued by their client. Such phenomenon is similar in the Securities industry. As a securities analyst, the recommendation you make to your client, whether it is “Buy”, “Hold” or “Sell”, the loss incurred by your client is none of your responsibility. Such system does not create a responsibility among analyst who makes recommendation and they do not have any incentive to protect their client interest. Thus, the most popular recommendation they make is “Buy and Hold” and seldom “Sell”. The reason is simple, if they do not recommend “Buy and Hold”, where are their interested parties, such as investment bankers, fund managers’ management fee, trustee fee, consulting fee…etc come from? The picture is very clear here: the interest of the people who entrusted their hard-earned money to the funds is not their interest. Their interest lies on those fees. There is no wonder why Amazon could be valued at $400 per share during the dot com mania while at the same time the company still struggling to make profit from the new start-up.