Would it surprise you to know that a boiler room operation that doesn’t let junior employees sit down would instruct its employees to cold call potential investors using lines from a script that include such “power phrases” as “This account will come back to you in spades” and “Give me just 1% of your trust and confidence and I will earn the other 99%”? That a place whose founder thought making cameos in Shia LaBeouf movies was a good idea would tell those same employees to say things like “If I am half right, we go out for a steak dinner on you…is that fair enough?”? That that same founder, who has been charged with fraud, in addition to intimidation and harrassment (because he threatened to run over a broker), would coach his staff to respond to someone saying they need to discuss a possible investment with their wife with the line “Let’s face it, if you go home and tell your wife that you want to invest with a broker whom you don’t know very well, chances are you will be hit with a frying pan and spend the night on the couch”? Probably not! And, yet, it is still an amazing thing to behold. John Thomas Financial’s full pitchbook of proprietary comebacks and “closers” can be found here. Our favorites: Read more »
John Thomas Financial
If Threatening To Hit An Employee With His Car Is Wrong, Tommy Belesis Doesn’t Want to Be Right
By Bess Levin
Remember Tommy Belesis? Founder and CEO of preeminent boiler room John Thomas Financial? Breakout star of Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps? Mentor to Shia Labeouf? Guy who enforces rules at his shop about not letting junior employees sit down, who has cultivated an atmosphere in which senior brokers rub the balls of a bull every morning for good luck and walk around saying things like “motion creates emotion” without any irony, and who generally gives the impression he proudly displays towels in his guest bath that have been hand-stitched with the phrase “Don’t pitch the bitch,” which he make sure to point out during house tours? This may come as a surprise, as it seems so out of character, but he’s been charged with fraud and intimidation that in one instance involved suggesting an employee ought to look both ways before crossing the street. Read more »
Boiler Room Operator Who Doesn’t Let Junior Sit Down, Thinks Cameos In Shia LaBeouf Movies Are Good For Business Shockingly Charged With Fraud
By Bess Levin
Who could have seen this coming, besides everyone? Read more »
Former Occupy Wall Street Protester Can Sleep At Night Knowing Few People Would Recognize Her New Employer As Being On Wall Street
By Bess Levin
Other than when writing Penthouse forum entries or relaying tales of experimentation with barnyard animals, it’s not often that people tell stories which include the words “I never thought I’d be doing this.” On that note, remember John Thomas Financial? To recap, it’s a four year-old brokerage best known for being run by a guy (Thomas Belesis) who 1) last year took it upon himself to organize a “rally” to “bring back the pride of Wall Street” (which marked the first time anyone that worked on Wall Street had heard of the place) and 2) May have wanted to bring back not only pride but the sort of corporate culture that accepted, nay, encouraged “lesbian strippers on the trading floor,” a lack of judgement re: “virtual hailstorms of sexual harassment,” and a can-do attitude from junior employees when “assigned to mop up the whipped cream and bodily fluids resulting from an exec’s midday frolic with his secretary,” as was the case as his former firm. Anyway, JTF is back in the news on account of trolling Occupy Wall Street for employees and finding one in Tracy Postert, who apparently wouldn’t have accepted the offer unless she were really, really desperate which, lucky for Belesis, she was. Read more »
Method actors at the boy's department's jackets that love them.
Yesterday we mentioned that thespian, Level III CFA candidate and noted stock picker Shia LaBeouf had been talking up InterOil, an oil and natural gas exploration company. “IOC’s momentum is major, and it will surprise to the upside,” LaBeouf said in a text message to the GQ article’s author, Adam Sachs, who wrote about ShiLa’s new hobby (making it rain all from the comfort of his boxers) for the magazine’s April issue. But where did the master trader get the idea? Sure he meets with Goldman Sachs execs on the reg and is thisclose to becoming a CFA but is he really that good? I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt (he’s going to be running one of the most powerful hedge funds in the world one day so trying to stay on his good side and all that) but others are thinking the budding BSD had some help from his friends at John Thomas Financial (the people who brought you the pride rally and breasts as napkins). Read more »
John Thomas Financial CEO, Defender Of Equal Rights For Wall Street, Most Likely Has Another Issue He’d Like To Address
By Bess Levin
A few weeks ago, John Thomas Financial CEO Thomas Belesis demanded respect for a group of people, the denizens of Wall Street, who, while labeled “different” from the rest of society because of their alternative professions, are still human beings who deserve to be treated fairly. Belesi did so by organizing a rally on his firm’s trading floor attended almost exclusively by the people whose desks are there. He mostly spoke in broad terms, since this was the first event of its kind, and the organizers just wanted to get their name and cause out there. But now, let us get down to specifics. Wall Streeters should not be ashamed of what they do, or try to hide it behind closed doors for fear of judgment or backlash. For instance, before JB started JTF, he worked at place where strippers danced regularly on the trading floor, labia rings were sniffed, breasts were used as napkins, and junior employees mopped up their boss’s jizz. But outside the halls of the firm, no one was allowed to talk about it. And not only that, but people actually got in trouble with the law for this sort of thing! And if you’re Thomas Belesis, you’re probably thinkin’ “that ain’t right.”
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You know what they say: You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your financial planner. Or something like that. One of the great things of being in charge of your money is choosing who (if anyone) will help you manage it. The choice isn’t always an easy one. How will you know that your planner is reputable and trustworthy?
These five red flags may be good indications of whether the financial planner sitting across from you is someone you should trust with your money. LearnVest Planning also provides an innovative 7-step program for your money where you work one-on-one with a financial planner. To see if this program is right for you, start with a free financial consultation.
1. She Isn’t Certified
“There are a lot of good planners out there who aren’t Certified Financial Panners™,” says Samantha Vient, CFP®, of LearnVest Planning Services. “However, CFPs® are required to adhere to the CFP® Board’s standards of professional conduct.We believe it’s always a good idea to work with someone who has the CFP® designation, which is issued after completing a CFP® Board-approved personal financial planning curriculum, passing a rigorous exam issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, meeting experience requirements and passing an ethics and background check.
