how to kick ass on wall street - kessler, andy

[...]... Specie value and that we will give preference to each other in our Negotiations.” This is classic collusion that, wrapped and hidden in regulatory language, pretty much exists to this day Corporations used to only be able to borrow money from banks But smart bankers soon realized that a high stock price meant that companies could sell to the hungry public some more shares to raise money for expansion The higher the stock price, the... expertise to round up the money from pension funds or individuals, let alone trade their shares, so they pay a few percentage points to Wall Street to do it for them More so for the next solar cell companies, Wall Street has always lent their reputation to get complex deals done, again, for a modest fee It almost seems quaint Commissions on trading shares used to be ixed At 75 cents a share Wall Street. .. looking through a glass wall, like an aquarium’s shark tank Those sharks are increasingly extinct Holding Tanks: OK, there are lots of other jobs on Wall Street When the son-in-law of an exmanaging director with a gentleman’s C from Brown (C’s get degrees!) gets hired, they have to place him somewhere Often it’s on the repo desk Wall Street borrows tons of money on a short term basis to fund trading desks... buy-side and the sell-side? On the buy-side, you can say asshole before you hang up the phone.” Whether you trade or are in sales or are in research, you are on the phone constantly talking to clients or meeting them in person No matter what you are pitching, it’s not always going to work When you fail, your client has to take it out on someone, and that someone is you Get used to it You’re an asshole... igure out how to get paid, though perhaps not in that order So now Wall Street consolidates Should you care? Not even for an instant I spent years on Wall Street, competing against scores and scores of irms, always wondering what they all really did E.F Hutton Shearson, Drexel Heck I even worked for PaineWebber in my early days (daze?) on the Street All gone And nobody misses them And the new Wall Street? There’s only one direction... get pigeon-holed Once a banker, always a banker, but don’t let yourself get stuck in some dead -end role Check out what everyone else does I come from the stock side of the Street The bond and derivative side are not that much different, in terms of jobs and roles to play, so don’t get fooled by my over reliance on equity references Traders: That rough and tough history for traders meant Wall Street. .. igure out how to determine the cost of capital, how capital lows and who touches it along the way, and how much in fees or markups each player carves out for themselves, you will be so far ahead of everyone else on Wall Street * * * Here’s another thing you need to learn from your mentor: Everybody gets paid on Wall Street What does that even mean? It means you have to leave enough on the table that your clients make money When you do a trade, don’t wring out every last penny... individuals That someone is a syndicate manager The quali ication is that you have to be good at addition The Wall Street adage about syndicate managers is that they are too lazy to sell and too dumb to trade Analysts: I could spend pages describing analysts That’s what I did for way too long I wrote a book Wall Street Meat about it Read it if you want to know more Here’s the short version: When the bull market hit, in the summer of 1982,... 2008, over $100 billion in bonuses was been set aside to be paid in December Hence the populist rage Shareholders bought into this compromise and did well as stocks of Wall Street irms boomed Of course, the guys at the top of Wall Street did even better, grabbing a disproportionate chunk of the 50% compensation pool, but everybody did well up and down Wall Street Reminds me of the old story that when asked... bypass exchanges and create a virtual exchange with all the other trading platforms and match orders themselves Is this good or bad for Wall Street? Faster and cheaper is always good, but it means dislocations for those that work on exchanges Beware, Wall Street is not static It is always in flux In all my years working on Wall Street, I only went to the NYSE once and I paid $12 to enter the visitor’s .