There is a changing tide on The Street. I’m not talking about the government intervention that is sweeping over our landscape like a plague. It has nothing to do with the technological or mechanical innovation that has turned a peoples business into one where we stare at pop up windows and IM messages like an air traffic controller. Nor am I addressing any of the current hot topics that are the fluff of the day on CNBC or the Wall Street Journal. It has nothing to do with Bulls, Bears, bond yields, or market inflection points. It has to do with Wall Street as a community. There was a time I was proud to say what I did for a living. Where I felt like I was part of a select group. We might have been on different teams but we definitely all played in the same league. A league where we all benefited mutually and tried to take care of each other. A group of soldiers who had mutual respect because we were all in the same foxhole. Now it just feel more like every man for himself.
There have always been clicks on the street. The Italians that ruled the floor, the Jewish mafia of the hedge fund world, the Irish mob that controlled the Boston flow. The wholesale eat what you kill jeans brigade, and the bulge bracket salary bonus suits. When push came to shove however, we all served the same army and lived by a code of ethics. The economic pressures that are effecting our world are unfortunately slowing destroying that mind set. Gone are the days when sales traders introduced their accounts to others in order for them to be repaid in kind. They have been replaced by solo trips to regions, where we hoard the relationship like a smoker with one cigarette left. Vanishing are the times when the traders and sales credit their research for helping with the order flow. Now its, “why should we split the commissions with anyone”. No more helping the junior person on the desk. Why should we. If the axe comes, I want everyone to know that he is an idiot. There isn’t an “I” in the word TEAM, but there certainly is a “me”. Catchy phrases like ” I want to be part of a bigger picture” have been trumped by, ” I have to do what’s best for my family”. Where is all this silo thinking getting us? I’ll tell you where. Nowhere.
We are under attack my brothers. By the government, Obama, regulators and Michael Moore. We are sitting in our little man made silos with our heads down, while they pick us off one by one. Instead of fighting back we are just hoping to survive. We aren’t concerned with building platforms, we just want an individual business that gets us through this rough patch. I’m not sure if greed made us this way, or it’s just a natural instinct to protect ourselves, but it’s not working. We have to get back to looking out for each other, before it’s too late. There is still money being made on the street. It’s just not going in our pockets anymore. Maybe it’s because we don’t have the strength in numbers that we used to. Fighting this war solo instead of with a platoon. Being passive is not what got us this far. Together we once ruled the world. We can do it again. The worst thing that can happen is that we lose our jobs. I hate to tell you this but it’s going to happen anyway. If we are going to go down, let’s go down together. Lets not be what the media and the Barney Frank say we are from their pulpits. Be your brother’s keeper, and prove them all wrong. We were great, and together we can be again. Divided we are dinosaurs, together we take back what is rightfully ours.
-Six
