Reply #1: I was a broker for 15 years. [View All]

[Celtic Merlin]

Let me tell you that EVERY decision made from the top on down is made with one and only one thing guiding the decision-making process - "How much money can we make on this person?" It guides their hiring decisions, their recommendations to clients, their promotions, and their trading decisions.

If two products do the same thing but one makes them an extra dime (not a dollar - a dime), they'll go with the one that makes the extra dime every time. If two products do ALMOST the same thing, but one makes them ALOT more money while blunting the client's return a few points - they go with that one every time. Management will call you into a meeting with three of them facing you across the conference room table and grill the shit out of you to make you justify why you didn't sell the client the high-profit, low-return product over the one which was better for the client. It happened to me several times.

Regulation? There isn't shit for regulation of that industry and there hasn't been any REAL regulation ever since Congress chickened out of imposing real regulation and allowed the financial industry to create something called the NASD - which is SUPPOSED to be the self-regulating body of the financial industry. It's a joke and it always has been.

In defense of the NASD, if a guy at the bottom of the heap (the one actually working with the public) does something blatant to harm a client AND the client realizes it AND the client complains AND a manager takes it seriously (because they don't pursue complaints against their "Top Producers") AND the client follows up on their complaint AND it gets forwarded to the NASD AND they decide that they must do something, THEN the broker will lose his license for three months or six months or maybe for a whole year if it's bad enough or permanently if it was blatant enough and involved enough money. But, it has to involve alot of money and be nakedly criminal to warrant a permanent loss of license.

The managers who were supposed to be overseeing the thief - NOTHING happens to them.

You know how some police departments have citizen review boards? The financial industry needs those - one for every city, and bigger ones for each state, and REALLY big ones for each firm. And they should be adversarial. And they should be paid for by the financial industry out of their after-tax profits.

Celtic Merlin
Carlinist