An irreverent Wall Street Blog
BrokeAndBroker.com Blog by Bill Singer, Esq. WEEK IN REVIEW
January 17, 2016
A few weeks ago, you sat down with your manager, who said that, overall, your 2015 performance was good, except, you know, you didn't sell as much house product as the firm wanted and your cold calling isn't quite up to where it should be. Don't get me wrong, you were told we like you, we want you stay, but, to be frank, we think you need to kick yourself in the ass and get it all back into gear. Let's double down on the cross-selling, okay?
Let's face it . . . it's been brewing for some time now and that slap in the face during your year-end meeting with the office honcho didn't help. You want outta here. Next week, you're calling back that recruiter whose been after you the last year. You're also going to meet with the competition on the other side of town. Cold calling? Cross-selling? Yeah, right -- how about a little more support from the firm? How about another sales assistant? How about an extra point on the old grid payout? I show them some double down!
One bit of advice. If you're planning on jumping ship, whatever cute little tricks you're thinking about pulling to give yourself an advantage -- a headstart before your former firm sends the posse after you and tries to retain your clients -- well, those shortcuts have been done before and they don't always work. Not saying that they don't sometimes work. Just saying that most likely whatever you've heard about or have conjured up, someone has already done it. And someone has likely gotten caught with not so great results. Before you dig deep into the Black Ops of Wall Street's bag of tricks, consider the additional costs of a regulatory suspension and fine. READ
Some scoffed. Perhaps even you doubted? Regardless, as now documented online, BrokeAndBroker.com publisher Bill Singer unleashed the Butterfield Effect upon the stock market yesterday. Today, Singer puts the Butterfield Genie back into the bottle and offers the xylophone antidote. Having spent his energy on single-handedly countering the downward stock market spiral, Singer uses today's blog to vent about a seemingly unique and fascinating promissory note arbitration. READ
So . . . for those of you hoping that China has calmed down and that the stock markets around the world will soon put in a bottom, and you're hoping, really hoping, that a Jimi-Hendrix-Bull-Market is awaiting, here's a bit of nostalgia to get your day off to one hell of a start. Enjoy the Butterfield band's last song of their epic performance at Woodstock. If you're at the trading desk or in the office, crank it up and let's get the market mojo going. READ
Mexico Security Concerns Posed Postal Risk For Brokerage Customer
As if Mexico isn't in the news enough these days, we now find a regulatory settlement involving the somewhat unusual scenario of a Mexican resident having security concerns about receiving her brokerage statements via snail mail. No . . . the solution here is not to have Donald Trump build a postal system for Mexico and have that country pay for it. On the other hand, the stockbroker who serviced this account came up with another approach which also doesn't seem like a particularly sound solution. READ