About that MB name drop on ANC’s 'Market Edge'

Merkado Barkada received a mention yesterday from Stephen “Steveinomics” Cuunjieng during his appearance on Michell Ong’s "Market Watch" program on ANC. The name drop happens at roughly the 56:50 mark of the June 4 edition of "Market Edge" (YouTube link) at the tail end of a segment where Mr. Cuunjieng discussed his take on PHINMA [PHN 20.70, down 5.3%; 360% avgVol].

My name comes up because Ms. Ong was joking with Mr. Cuunjieng that his mention of PHN’s name ruined the “blind item” approach that the program had hoped to take with the discussion, and Mr.

Cuunjieng responded by saying that he “has no dealings with PHINMA”, and went on to say that he’s “not Merkabo Barkada who doesn’t say who he is or what he does.” He added: “Full disclosure, I have no business with [PHINMA].”

> “Dada, you got dissed on live TV!”  That was my son’s analysis of my big moment when I showed him the clip after school. I often watch Market Edge, but I didn’t get a chance to catch this one, so I heard about the mention in the most unnerving way possible: through private messages from people saying, “Have you seen Market Edge today??” For the record, I think it’s awesome that I got mentioned and that lots of people who read my work saw it and reached out to have a laugh. It was a bit of fun on an otherwise boring day on the market.

I take the whole thing as a badge of honor. Not only does Mr. Cuunjieng know about me, but when he mentions my name, my own personal TV hero Michelle Ong just laughed along knowingly.

No “who?” or looks of confusion. That’s real!

> Full disclosure:  The interesting part of this exchange for me is that Mr. Cuunjieng’s great analysis of PHN happened without any disclaimers or disclosures about his level of involvement with the company, and his disclosures seemed to only arise in response to Ms.

Ong’s joke at the end. It’s possible that – without that joke – Mr. Cuunjieng could have ended the rushed segment without ever mentioning that he has no interest or involvement in PHN.