Backstage Wall Street: An Insider’s Guide to Knowing Who to Trust, Who to Run From, and How to Maximize Your Investments

10Wholesalers and the Brokers Who Love Them

It is 9:15 in the morning on a snowy day in the winter of 2003, and I haven’t had my coffee just yet. Or I did but I’m cranky anyway. I am working in the Helmsley Building on Park Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan. It has been designated a “landmark building,” which really means that you’ll have to pardon the building for the arctic office temps in the winter and the equatorial humidity in the summer. As I sit there dialing the phone, in the shadow of the gargantuan MetLife Building, which we all expect to be bombed any minute, I see an incoming call from a 617 area code. Boston. Here we go …

“Hello, this is Josh Brown.”

“Hi Josh, Bill O’Shaughnessey from Fidelity.* How’s yah day going?”

“Ya know, ...