Stock Brokers

Experts Predict the Death of the Broker (Yeah, that old chestnut)

“Bill Singer foresees stock brokers not existing after this generation and instead the market will have commission-paid telephone operators who dole out information.” Forbes, August 2009 Another era, another article discussing the Death of the Broker.  My friend/buddy/pal Bill Singer, a maven on all subjects pertaining to the broker/dealer and regulatory world, is quoted in…

Red Flags in the Sky

“He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces” – Samuel Johnson If Bernie Madoff was the Harlem Globetrotters of stock fraud (undefeated for decades), then Ross Mandell and his Sky Capital crew are the Washington Generals.  Mandell has been in trouble with regulators and officials on and off…

What Obama's "Brokers As Fiduciaries" Change Really Means

In Obama‘s new regulatory reform proposal, there is language concerning how brokers are looked at and treated versus investment advisors. From the Wall Street Journal: Currently, brokers are only required to offer investments that are “suitable,” which means they can’t put clients in inappropriate investments, such as a highly risky stock for an 80-year-old grandmother….

Mortimer, We're Back: Return of the Broker

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.2483668&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] X I saw a piece in the Journal today that blew my mind.  After everything we’ve been through since the fall of 2007, retail stockbrokers have begun to leave their turrets in big numbers this spring: From the Wall Street Journal via Barry Ritholtz: In April, more than 2,800 people registered as brokers…

What is a Piker?

One of the first slang terms I came across when I started in the business was “Piker”, as in “so-and-so is a total piker”.

Amongst the brokers, that was the worst name we could call one another, but it could also be used to describe anyone who is involved in or invests in the markets.

Essentially, by calling someone a piker, you were ridiculing them for the fact that they were either a small-time player or too afraid to bet big.

This got me curious enough to start asking about where the term “Piker” came from. Interestingly, those who seemed to use it most often had the least idea of what it truly meant.