Global Finance on Screen by Constantin Parvulescu

Author:Constantin Parvulescu [Parvulescu, Constantin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781351696647
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Coda: ghosts of J. T. Marlin

One of the objections to the anthropological relevance of Boiler Room for today’s economy is that the era of the cold calls, salesmen brokers, high-pressure tactics, penny stock scams, traders with high school degrees, and visions of overnight profits has come to an end. The Internet, in particular online trading portals, and mass advertising have taken over most of the tasks of J. T. Marlin’s workforce. Similar to online banking, which eliminated the teller and gave its clients direct access to their accounts, internet investment portals such as Plus500, The Telegraph Investor or FxPro replaced the broker and his phone calls with the click of the mouse. Due to computer and smartphone technology, investors can enter in direct contact with the market, allegedly without being exposed to the risk of dealing with the deceiving practices of a middleman like Seth. The only noticeable trace of the broker on these sites seems to be the free tips on investment the portals offer and a visibly posted phone number on the upper right side of the screen, which a consumer who doesn’t feel financially enlightened can dial in order to receive investment services.

This objection to Boiler Room’s relevance is pertinent but not accurate. First, because boiler rooms are still up and running. An article in Bloomberg Online (Faux 2013) shows how one of them, named John Thomas, became quite profitable, and its CEO regarded as a respectable Wall Street businessman (even offered a cameo role in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street II: Money Never Sleeps). John Thomas appropriated the structure, style, company ethos, and the aggressive sales tactics (including the golden rule of not pitching the unenlightened) of the boiler room presented in the film, making one even wonder if the company’s name, John Thomas, was not inspired by the J. T. initials of its fictional homologue.

The other objection to this objection is that, even if spectral, the manipulative work of Seth, Greg and Young can be traced in the very spectacle of transparency and straightforwardness these sites entertain, and in their enlightening effort to disperse market mystique. As they deal with big boys only, they are perhaps the most important beneficiaries of the grand sale of the financial dream to the population in the deregulation era, which led to the rendering of the social field cooperative to financial services. Since it is in their interest, internet platforms both carry on the sale and exploit it. They become the new grand promoters of financial (pseudo)enlightenment and the enlargers of the pool of people who think they can “get in” – nowadays reaching out to blue-collar wealth and intellects, which, so far, have been exploited mainly by online sports betting.

Online trading portals continue to nurture, manipulatively, the same social emotions of entitlement and empowerment that made the dialers of numbers of yesteryear have people listen to them. Harking back to Seth’s words, their marketing plan is to make clients think, like Seth, that trading has been democratized and that

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