It's attitude, not altitude, as the saying goes. As some readers know, the London skyline (like much of Europe) is rather squat, with the highest located at 1 Canada Square at 50 stories (235 metres/801 feet). The Global Absolute Return Congress (Global ARC), long supported by CAIA, was held at the Landmark Hotel in London and CAIA London took the opportunity to host a reception on the fifth floor of the famed hotel (originally constructed as the terminus lodging of the planned Great Central Railway line from Marylebone station, under the Channel to the Continent). CAIA members as well as Global ARC attendees and other guests gathered in the Tower Room which boasts a view of the glass-ceilinged Winter Garden courtyard restaurant and, through its own large skylight, the beautiful blue sky of a London evening.

Those in attendance, enthralled as they were at the opulent views, where at least equally under the spell of Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate, professor and prolific author. It was an excellent opportunity for all to reflect on two days of conference panels, two weeks/months of incredible market turbulence and two years of unimaginable (at least by most) financial system seizures and volatility.

Of course, intrepid traveler Chris Holt was there to remind attendees that there is no such thing as a free lunch (or bar) and that those who did not have the CAIA designation should seriously look into it and get to know, from those members on hand, why it might make sense for them. For the CAIA members from around the globe, it was yet another way to meet and get to know other market participants and learn firsthand the local perspective on current events, such as Germany's recent ban on naked CDS shorting and the EU's directive on hedge and private equity funds that could affect all in the room—the latter perhaps leading them to change their view from The Gherkin to a Swiss Alp.

Par for the course for CAIA members: blue sky thinking with Nobel laureates.

James Burron
CAIA Canada Chapter Executive