After Macquarie's rather subdued 8.15 morning meeting, in which investment strategies and basic guidelines on how to handle the plunge were discussed, Ms Chan phoned her clients. A lot of the people I deal with have been in the market a long time and they were pretty relaxed. I was in at seven in the morning and almost immediately got two sell orders over the phone. Minutes before the market opened and the atmosphere at Macquarie was tense. It's a very emotional time.
Money makes people emotional.
If you lose your client's money you've got to go back and explain why. On top of that, the same clients want to know if they should be back in and buying as the share prices drop. There's an awful lot of pressure. I always feel very responsible for what happens to my clients' money - we're talking about people's retirement funds in many cases. I was never off the phone.