To the Junior Analyst Working on Christmas Eve: Go Home
Sutanto here. Ex-Goldman, Ex-KPMG.
It is December 24. I know some of you are currently sitting in a bullpen in Jakarta, Singapore, or Hong Kong, refreshing a Bloomberg terminal, waiting for the US market to close at 1:00 PM ET.
You are hoping your MD notices you are online. You are tweaking a pitch deck for a deal that won’t close until February.
I have been there. I remember spending Christmas Eve 2002 analyzing banking reform data for a client, convinced that this sacrifice was necessary for my career.
Looking back after 25 years, I can tell you: It wasn't.
The Law of Diminishing Returns Finance is a marathon, not a sprint. The "Burnout Rate" in our industry is notoriously high because we confuse "presence" with "performance."
Today, the Jakarta market (JKSE) is drifting around 8,584. The real institutional money—the "Smart Money"—left the building last Friday. If you are trading or modeling today, you are likely working on low-value tasks.
A Senior Banker's Advice Your cognitive capital is your biggest asset. If you enter 2026 exhausted, you will miss the alpha.
- Detach: Realize that the market volume is thin. Nothing material is happening.
- Recharge: The best trade idea I ever had didn't come from a spreadsheet; it came while I was resting.
- Perspective: I managed $5 Billion at my peak. I don't remember the trades I made on Dec 24. I remember the dinners I missed.
Go home. Be with your family. The market will open again.
Merry Christmas, monkeys.
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