It’s hard to pinpoint the catalyst that caused markets to plummet, the exposure of unethical practices in the financial world, and the credit crisis that we are in today.
Is it because working in financial services (in many instances) had become too lucrative or is it because Americans as consumers are weak and gravitate toward shiny objects, exotic trades, (from a hotshot broker in New York!) and complicated mortgages structured by now defunct banks?
One of my favorite movies of all-time is Boiler Room, as it shows an accurate representation of chop shop culture and the attitudes and behaviors of many brokers in that environment. For me, Boiler Room glamorized the business and influenced me toward working within the financial services industry for a period of time.
When I was 21, I responded to a Craigslist ad to become sponsored by a “retail equities brokerage” where I would learn the business through cold calling and studying for my Series 7. The opportunity seemed like it would pay dividends down the road so I kindly accepted the offer.
In just a few months working at this firm I observed the following:
1: I was becoming an animal on the phone. Being trained by sharks caused me to be relentless and not take “no” for an answer.
2: There was no dress coded or sense of office etiquette. Most of us, (myself included) rocked the classic head-to-toe Puma jumpsuit. (Typical guinea attire.) We had dice games in the conference room after the markets closed.
3: There were no analysts at the firm. Brokers pitched what they liked or stocks with preexisting “call scripts”. There was one speculative stock (Telkonet) that was pitched harder than anything else. It’s ticker symbol (TKO) opened up more accounts on a first trade basis than more commonly known stocks, because the ticker sounded “cool”.
4: Everything I did was fake. I used a fake name. I pretended I was a senior broker. I held conversations in topics I knew nothing about. (Fishing, golf and hunting?) I told prospects I would call them back “later on down the road”, in-turn I passed them off to a British guy (heavy accent) where he’d read my notes and open the account. The client was none-the-wiser.
I never ended up passing my Series 7 exam. The firm tried selling me on reasons I should keep studying and “dialing for dollars”. Frankly, I was sick of being an actor on the telephone getting leads for someone else. I ended up parting ways with the firm on good terms. As a former “chop shopper”, where would I go next? For me that was an easy decision, I became a mortgage broker.
