Don't know a firm named Merril.

There is one named Merrill, which is short for Merrill Lynch, which is short for Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith or was it Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Bean?

Maybe it was Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower, Hemphill and Weeks?

Life is so confusing.

The thing about these sort of "scandals" is that the public has a deaf ear.  They are also sophisticated enough to know that contests in a call center would not be uncommon and whenever you have contests you're going to experience some aggressive behavior.

Things that draw monetary fines from the NASD and/or the SEC are generally very minor.  Remember that huge sums of money to you and me are drops in the bucket to our employers.

Flood: You are wrong. The public INDEED pays attention to these things. The more s**t that sticks on Wall Sreet, makes our jobs more difficult. I’m tired of a few bad players giving me a bad name by association. 

[quote=Revealer]Flood: You are wrong. The public INDEED pays attention to these things. The more s**t that sticks on Wall Sreet, makes our jobs more difficult. I'm tired of a few bad players giving me a bad name by association. [/quote]

I don't disagree with that.  But it's a generic bad reputation rather than specific.

The things you see comparing stock brokers to used car salesman are (apparently) somewhat valid although when you poll the public you're not going to get a true sampling of the types of people the industry is trying to attract as customers.  Even if you try to qualfiy those who respond to polls you're going to get a lot of points of view that are essentially irrelevat.  What you really care about is what upscale people think and there are few, if any, polls that accurately reflect their points of view.

The famous adage, "I don't care what you say about me, just spell my name right" is very appropriate when it comes to the American public.  Firms such as Merrill can find themselves being benefited by negative publicity because a huge number, like 80% of the citizens, think no deeper than, "You hear a lot about Merrill Lynch so I suppose they're really good."

Even as an individual it's not that big a deal in a lot of respects.  If you should draw a 90 days suspension your name is going to appear in the Wall Street Journal.  In a section with others who have drawn similar sanctions.  The reality is that the only people who pay attention to that section are people looking for their own name.

My point is the industry has a bit of a bad name, but individual firms and individual brokers rarely get one.

It's like Congress.  There are 434 members of the House who suck, but not mine and I'm going to vote for them again.

It was actually Bear Sterns that was hit with the 250MM fine. ML was hit with 5MM for improper call center activities…

[quote=blarmston]ML was hit with 5MM for improper call center activities.... [/quote]

Were the call center reps looking at online porn or something?

[quote=blarmston]It was actually Bear Sterns that was hit with the
250MM fine. ML was hit with 5MM for improper call center activities…
[/quote]



THANK YOU FOR POINTING THIS OUT.  IT IS JUST ASSUMED THAT WITH
EVERY BIG FINE MERRILL LYNCH IS INVOLVED.  FOR CHRIST SAKE, EVEN
PEOPLE IN OUR INDUSTRY GET CONFUSED ON THE MATTER!  MERRILL WAS
NAMED AS ONE OF THE MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES BY FORTUNE MAGAZINE, BUT
DOES ANYONE MENTION THAT?  MERRILL LYNCH WAS EXONERATED ON MANY OF
THE SEC ACCUSATIONS, AND HAVE ONE AN OVERWHEMING NUMBER OF ARBS TAKEN
AGAINST THEM…BUT NO ONE HEARS OF THAT. 



ITS THE PRICE OF BEING ON THE TOP.

[quote=rightway][quote=blarmston]It was actually Bear Sterns that was hit with the
250MM fine. ML was hit with 5MM for improper call center activities…
[/quote]



THANK YOU FOR POINTING THIS OUT.  IT IS JUST ASSUMED THAT WITH
EVERY BIG FINE MERRILL LYNCH IS INVOLVED.  FOR CHRIST SAKE, EVEN
PEOPLE IN OUR INDUSTRY GET CONFUSED ON THE MATTER!  MERRILL WAS
NAMED AS ONE OF THE MOST ADMIRED COMPANIES BY FORTUNE MAGAZINE, BUT
DOES ANYONE MENTION THAT?  MERRILL LYNCH WAS EXONERATED ON MANY OF
THE SEC ACCUSATIONS, AND HAVE ONE AN OVERWHEMING NUMBER OF ARBS TAKEN
AGAINST THEM…BUT NO ONE HEARS OF THAT. 



ITS THE PRICE OF BEING ON THE TOP.

[/quote]

methinks thou dost protest too much, sir.

nice touch there with the caps, too.