As A Broker, There Is An Unwritten Rule That You Don't Steal Clients From A Co-worker Because We All Work On Commission. Our Office Phone System Works In Such A Way That If A Desk Is Unmanned, The Call Will Be Transferred To Another Desk Until It Is Picked Up. When I Get A Call Of This Nature, I Can Pull Up The Investors Information And See Exactly What Has Portfolio Holds And Who He Normally Deals With. If The Client Is Long Term And Has A Preference For A Particular Broker, I Simply Tell Them That I'll Have Their Broker Call Them Right Back. The One Time I Decided To Ignore This Rule, It Ended Up Causing A Big Scene. Although We All Have Stocks To Push, There Is A Degree Of Flexibility In What We Recommend Our Customers Buy That Differentiates Each Of Us. Therefore, What I Recommend May Be In Stark Contrast To What The Guy Sitting Next To Me Might Recommend. One Day A Call Comes Across My Desk From A Big Client. This Client Is So Big, In Fact, That He Is The Primary Bread And Butter For One Of My Co-workers. The Day The Client Called Was The Last Day Of A Weeklong Vacation My Co-worker Had Taken, So I Knew He Wouldn't Be Able To Call Him Back Until The Next Day. By Coincidence, I Was Pushing A Stock That Had Just Reached It's One Month Low, But That I Knew Was Primed To Resurge. I Was As Sure Of This Stock As Any I'd Ever Recommended Before. Still, I Knew I Would Catch Major Hell From Everyone For Making A Commission Off Of Another Broker's Primary Client. I Decided I Couldn't Let The Opportunity Pass The Investor By So I Simply Told Him That His Broker Had Instructed Me To Tell Him About The Stock I Was Sure Of If The Client Called, And That His Broker Would Be Back Tomorrow. The Client Bit On The Stock And Made A Major Purchase. I Thanked Him, Filled Out A Commission Sheet With My Co-workers Information On It (so That He Would Be The One To Benefit From My Work) And Forgot About It. I Figured I Might Get A Nice "thank You" Upon His Return...especially If The Stock Performed As I Expected And The Client Was Happy. At The End Of The Day, I Checked The Stock To Find It Had Climbed An Astounding Three Points. I Wasn't Thinking Of The Sale To My Co-worker's Client As I, Myself Had Made Several Sales Of It To My Clients And Was Happy That They Were Going To Profit Handsomely From My Recommendation. The Next Day, I Came In To Find My Co-worker (yes, That Co-worker) Standing At My Desk. He Had Seen His Client On My Caller ID And Proceeded To Throw A "class A" Fit In Front Of God And Everybody. I Simply Stood There While He Lit Into Me As Though I Had Just Devoured His Firstborn. Not Only Did He Scream At Me, Several Others Joined In, Thinking I Had Sold To His Client On My Behalf. I Didn't Say A Word. I Knew That He, Nor They, Had Discovered That I Put The Sale Under His Name And That The Stock Had Performed Extremely Well. He Said His Last And Stormed Off Back To His Desk. Every Morning, We Get A Printout Of The Previous Day's Activity Around 9:00 Am. That's Usually About The Time I Go Down To The Cafeteria For A Cup Of Coffee. When I Returned, There Was My Co-worker, Standing At My Desk And Smiling From Ear To Ear. Not Only Had He Made A Nice Commission Without Even Being At Work, His Client Called To Thank Him While I Was Getting Coffee. I Just Smiled Right Back, Knowing He Had To Be Feeling About Two Feet Tall. I Had Lobster For Lunch That Day, And Guess Who Paid. I Love Caller ID.
