How does a big Swiss bank built on stolen Nazi gold, hidden money from African and Middle Eastern despots and un-taxed lucre from wealthy Americans with cross-border connections react to yet another multi-billion dollar quarterly loss? That’s easy! It fires stockbrokers. From the Financial Times: 2,500 will go in wealth management Americas, the former PaineWebber…
Brokers
Advisors Doing Less Than 300k Are Not Cutting It at UBS
According to an article in Registered Rep last week, advisors producing less than 300k a year are no longer welcome at UBS. Merrill Lynch also rolled up the welcome mat on producing brokers and advisors below that threshold back in December. Now that the larger, inefficient firms have decided to no longer nurture smaller producers,…
Consolidate Your Brokerage Accounts in 2009: Your Friend, the ACAT
Consolidating your brokerage accounts isn’t the same thing as “putting all your eggs in one basket”. Rather, it’s about keeping a wide variety of different investments with only a few trustworthy and helpful people so you can keep track of what you’re doing. Putting all your eggs in one basket would be consolidating your whole…
OMG: Morgan Stanley and Citi/ Smith Barney?
Reuters is reporting the possibility of Citi and Morgan Stanley getting together. Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley as a possible joint venture…
Full Disclosure: No Position in either MS or C
Test Your Broker: Call Him Before 8:30 AM
As a broker AND a branch manager, I am consistently amazed at how difficult it is to explain the importance of starting the day early to other reps. The conversation goes something like this: Branch Manager: Where are you, the market is opening in 20 minutes… Broker: Yeah, I know, had to take care of a…
Slightly Used Ticker Symbols For Sale: MER and WB
On a quiet post-New Year’s Friday, two of the most widely followed stocks disappeared from Quotrons and trading screens around the world: MER and WB.
As Merrill Lynch and Wachovia begin their new lives as foster children of Bank of America and Wells Fargo respectively, the question remains, what will happen to their orphaned call letters? Do they end up on the Island of Misfit Ticker Symbols?
