Hey Spitzer, FUCK YOU!!!
DISCLAIMER: there is no useful info in this post, it is merely an "I hate gov't regulation shpeel". At this moment, I hate the government more than I can express.
Ok, so, I work in sales and have the opportunity to do a part time ER gig at another firm, but I have to turn it down because it's illegal. A few years ago, Elliot Spitzer, that bastard of a hypocrit, extorted his rules into place: simply put, research isn't allowed to communicate with sell side, EVEN IF there was no prospect of insider trading. I however, have no intention of doing anything unethical. I was thinking of doing both jobs for maybe the next six months/year, training my replacement here, and then doing ER full time. BUT, the government won't let me, and HR says it's a big no-no. Compliance will never know of this, and as usual, has no idea what's going on. So, I'm passing this opening on to an alum, and hoping that good karma comes back to me.
The sales group has absolutely nothing to do with the research group: different products, different sectors, different companies, and totally unrelated aside from the fact that they are both in the financial industry.
To illustrate how I see things, I'm going to contrast the financial industry with another - hospitality: When I was a bartender, I had no problem picking up shifts at other places. In fact, changing the scenery around from week to week drove business up: new people would follow to places they hadn't been to before, and each establishment would get the benefit of customer cross pollination. New people were introduced to new places, drink recipes were compared and contrasted, pricing was discussed, bar crawls were organized, employees were able to find extra shifts, owners got free publicity, each establishment gave each other the heads up on troublesome customers, and we enjoyed the benefits of living in a free country. Rivalries were also kept in check because owners that drink together are less likely to try and screw over the [very friendly] competition, and sometimes they even bailed each other out with supplies or staff in a pinch. The customers LOVED it, and everyone was making money.
This was good for all parties involved. Win-win-win all around.
Following the analogy, if I was a manager at a Mexican place, I would be fired AND SANCTIONED for mopping floors at the French restaurant down the block. For free. What if I wanted to open a French-Mex fusion place of my own at some point: NO! says the gov't, you must know everything and have all of the capital up front. In other words: the guys at the top keep control, and an ambitious person without means is screwed.
This is bullshit.
My honest opinion is that these rules serve the people at the top end of the food chain in keeping everyone under control. I see no other reason for not being allowed to go work FOR FREE somewhere else in my spare time. A decade ago, I was fair minded and would listen to either side of a debate, but now I see regulation as nothing more than bureaucratic bullshit created by government agencies to make pretend that they're doing their jobs, and make thier lives easier at the expense of the people actually generating revenue. But they aren't, and the last few years are proof of that.
My intention is simply to advance my career in a field that interests me. I am willing to work harder, longer, and FOR FREE in the hopes of a better situation, and I am not allowed to. Meanwhile, the sad parade of criminals who fucked millions of people, and each other, out of billions of dollars smile into the television. I had nothing to do whatsoever with the housing meltdown and am new to this industry, and it's almost like I moved to a different country where the 'rules' benefit the dictators.
THIS, WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, IS BULLSHIT
Well put arguments.
Sorry for the unfortunate and unreasonable circumstances.
Pretty sure this was a result of Sarbanes-Oxley rather than Elliot Spitzer. But I didn't even get to my internship until a few years after SOX, so I could be wrong.
Bottom line is that you're not entitled to get access to privileged information if you work in trading. The people giving you that information are ultimately trusting you not to trade on it, and your counterparty is trusting you not to have information he doesn't have access to when you sell him something or buy from him.
You may disagree with me now, but if you ever buy a car that turns out to be a lemon- or if you ever see a huge move up or down in a stock you own the day before something gets announced to the news, you'll probably change your mind on some of these rules. Ultimately, they're really designed to protect you from defrauding investors. If you follow the Chinese wall rules on the flow of information, nobody can accuse traders of having insider information and nobody can accuse research staff of getting paid to act on behalf of traders' positions.
HARUMPH!
I feel your pain. It is the price you have to pay if you want to work for an investment bank. You wouldn't have to deal with this at a prop shop, but then again, you wouldn't have the same job security.
Ok, so, I work in sales and have the opportunity to do a part time ER gig at another firm...
Hold up let me get this straight. So are you currently registered (licensed) with the firm that you do sales at? Because it seems as if you're trying to do ER at another firm and still have the same sales job.
Now if I misread you and am wrong then forgive me but this is a no-brainer as to why your current firm wouldn't want you to do that. I don't even think Spitzer has much to do with it and if I recall, research and sales go hand in hand at most dealers because the researchers drum up ideas for the sales people to pitch to clients.
If I'm wrong here, again, my bad. I would check-up on your facts though because I think what's impeding you is the fact that you'd be involved with sales at one firm while still trying to do ER at another firm. Different industries, products, etc? Sure. But different firms is where you're having the issue it seems....
-PD
THEM "work part time in another department?" OK "everything will be done after hours?" eh, ok "work in research in unrelated focus?" ehhhh, [scratches head] .....ok "work at 'such and such' firm, not here?" ....hold on, that's a problem. Not so fast. UMMMM, No. Nice try....
ME "Curses, foiled again"
As for the details of the laws, I don't know. I was not shooting for regulatory accuracy and took the opportunity to take a cheap shot at the king of cheap shots :) Writing angry blog posts about our gov't isn't my specialty, and going forward, I should probably leave it to the pros on this site.....
Insider trading rules have simply driven it further underground. It still happens but now everyone has a false sense of security.
I like eliot spitzer. Has a good show running concurrent to bill oreilly's on fox news, except the man is much more intellengent than his prime time rival
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