Salomon Smith Barney wipes out lottery winner

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by traderdragon2, May 4, 2007.

  1. Yes, but with the winnings, it's a better brand of booze, and the old lady has bigger cans:D
     
    #11     May 4, 2007
  2. I have yet to meet anyone, or even hear of anyone, who was happy with any of the big firms managing their money. But I have heard of many people being wiped out.

    I knew someone who worked at a big firm, and he told me he was given incentives to push certain stocks and funds, most of which were ultimately bad investments. These outfits just put you into stocks they have in inventory and don't want. Just look at their record profits. That money comes out of their customers pockets.
     
    #12     May 4, 2007
  3. People should just ditch the full service firms. It's all BS. The only reason to use a full service firm is if they are giving you hot IPO's. Here is my simple stock picking strategy for those that are looking to invest for long term and not willing to take huge risks...buy SPY and IWM and hold for the long run and keep dollar cost averaging into them. Simple.
     
    #13     May 4, 2007
  4. The harsh reality is that a lot of the big retail firms will hire just about anyone who has some sort of salesmanship.

    You don't need an Ivy league degree or even know the slightest thing about investments to be a broker at most of these firms. Just enough info to pass the Series 7.

    When I was at a big wirehouse(name withheld) we had a new broker who I watched totally destroy accounts. He was a 40 something yr old guy whose last job was in produce sales.

    He didn't mean to smash these accounts. It was just that we were in a huge bull mkt (late 90's) and he thought he was doing the right thing.
     
    #14     May 4, 2007
  5. Remember when Smith Barney had those John Houseman commercials, about making money the old fashioned way? "Off the hide of their customers" didn't test well in focus groups, so they went with "They work for it." The latter sound bite at least leaves some room for interpretation. Calling all optimists.
     
    #15     May 4, 2007
  6. You are all missing the biggest point of all. Lottery is a state tax on the numerically challenged.

    The vig on the lottery will make a Las Vegas casino blush. It will put the dog track and the horse track to shame.

    It's state monopolized gambling with the worse possible odds. The real robbery has already been committed when you bought the ticket.
     
    #16     May 4, 2007
  7. Whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke and Duke still get the commission.

    Y'all sound like a couple of bookies.

    I think he gets it Mortimer.
     
    #17     May 4, 2007
  8. lmao!
     
    #18     May 4, 2007
  9. da-net

    da-net

    I can't say about the big firms, but I was a broker during the penny stock craze and I still have trouble getting that junk out of my head.

    The big three of that era were;

    Blinder Robinson aka Blind 'em and Rob 'em

    Stuart James & Co aka Stew 'em and Jam 'em

    R. B. Marich

    all three of the above required brokers to push their junk. I refused. I had my office manager sell one of my customers some stock (Rykka) that she crossed from one of her customers while I was at lunch one day.

    When my customer refused to pay, R.B. Marich sold out and pulled the loss from me! I asked corporate compliance officer to help, he refused. I contacted the NASD & SEC their attitude was "so what". The NASD & SEC turn a blind eye to what was going on in the firms. After that is when I got fired.

    Do you think that things have changed any? I don't!
     
    #19     May 4, 2007
  10. Lets see, I've gone BK, been divorced, spent a night or two in the can, drank like a fish and did drugs. Where's my f'n lotto winnings?:D
     
    #20     May 4, 2007