I’ve been buying the same stock for the same client for over three weeks now. It’s a great order. At least 5ook a day, sometimes a million and even more on down days. Yesterday we catch a seller… “You’ve been active in the name… I’m a seller… 50-100k not a problem… blah blah blah.” So I immediately call my buyer who’s off the desk (they’re always off the desk when you need them) and relay my situation to the drain plug that picked up the phone. I get, “I don’t know where he is but he should be right back. I’ll have him call you”.
Wonderful. Naturally the other retard has already called me twice to remind me that this “isn’t a day order” (never heard that one before) and to find out if my buyer cares or not. Finally the phone rings. “What do ya got?” I told him I have a seller in looking to sell stock. 50 to 100k with more behind… only now since the stock has drifted in an entire nickel (5 whole pennies), I have to explain where it was trading when the buyer came in and that in-line probably works but I have to check. Now instead of just saying something like “Yeah I’d sell them anywhere around here” and sparing me the grief of another phone call, he instead say’s “Let me know when your weasel seller wants to do something in-line” and hangs up with an attitude. Time out!
Note To Buy-side: Stocks trade. They move in both time and price. And believe it or not, stocks even move in between phone calls so stop acting surprised. And if the buyers pays down a nickel for stock maybe that’s just where they care. It might even be a limit. So don’t get all testy with me like I’m brokering for a pick-pocket. And why is OK when you do it? Look, it’s not that personal and you’re not that sophisticated. And guess what… my sellerr was in-line 5 minutes ago when I first called but you were too busy stroking yourself with Liquidnet lotion.
It’s ridiculous. Any time you have a buyer and seller more than five cents away from each other, these two seemingly intelligent professionals (I’m being kind) instantly transform themselves into a set of 3 year old brats bickering in the sand box. Now I’ve got to be a fucking child psychologist too? WTF! Since I don’t have a warm bottle of milk, it’s time to ad-lib on behalf of the opposing side… “Listen… He really appreciates the offer but unfortunately he’s stuck on PM limit right now. If it gets there and you want to cross stock he’s happy to trade with you.” Pathetic. But if you don’t play these little games, customer pride gets in the way and since they’re not in the sand box and cant go crying to Mommy, they instead go to the dark pools where they pay up even more (but that’s OK… because we’ll never figure out that it was them… Oh please).
-Dopey
