Backstage Wall Street at the Huffington Post

My friend Michael Martin, of the Martin Kronicle fame, interviewed me about Backstage Wall Street for the Huffington Post the other day. We talked about the snake pit and our respective escapes, I think you’ll enjoy it:

Michael Martin: The compensation system and the investment selection processes on Wall St. are based upon bullying. The Branch Office Manager bullies the Sales Manager. The Sales Manager bullies the brokers. And the brokers basically bully the unsuspecting investors into shlock they don’t need.

Josh Brown: It’s disgusting. It’s the worst system and it brings out the worst in everyone involved.

Some brokers get there hands on a sort of black market bible in the form of a flipbook known as the Lehman Method, which Josh includes in its entirety in the book. Named after the failed firm of the same name, the flipbook is literally a handy script that brokers use to overcome every possible objection that a potential client can come up with for not taking immediate action.

Objections like “Send me some more information,” “Let me talk it over with my wife,” and “I’m not liquid right now” were speedbumps that brokers edified on the Lehman Method could race over to get the client to commit.

Repeat these lines enough times, and they become second nature like you had studied a film script.

Imagine an army greater than 10,000 strong reciting this garbage? What does it have to do with making money? Nothing. Now imagine all the asshats quoting movies such as Boiler Room Wall St., thinking they’re almost Wall St. players with their headsets on, reeling off these lines to the unsuspecting like they invented them.

The uplifting part for both Josh Brown and myself came from leaving this environment — pulling ourselves out of the cancer.

Read the whole thing:

A Backstage Pass to a Show You Wouldn’t Believe (HuffPo)