Chatfield dean

[trimixdvr]

Years ago I did some business with a company called chatfield dean, anyone ever heard of them?

 

[nlslax]

Years ago I did some business with a company called chatfield dean, anyone ever heard of them?

They are long gone. Used to be one here in Orlando, mostly speculative trading w/momentum stocks.

 

[trimixdvr]

I assumed that was the case, I actually did pretty well with them.

 

[timm553]

Years ago I did some business with a company called chatfield dean, anyone ever heard of them?

I was a broker with them while living in Atlanta in the mid 90's. Left there and went back to Operations, where I should have stayed in the first place. In retrospect it seemed like a "pump and dump" operation, but I did pick up on some good stuff also.

 

[TIBC1]

Years ago I did some business with a company called chatfield dean, anyone ever heard of them?

I worked for them for about 4 months as a licensed broker before they laid me off in 1993-94, because I had only opened 3 accounts, but had generated 300+ leads making 300+ cold calls a day, 6 days a week. I believe the term for an operation like this is "boiler room." However, while I was there I was treated to the spectacle of the two principles of the company suspended from the securities industry for 6 months each and they had to each retake their series 7 and other series exams before they were allowed back into running the company. In addition, several other brokers in the company were disciplined including some being banned from the securities industry for life. They actively pushed penny stocks, some of which turned out to be worthless later on. These types of activities can be traced back to the lineage of the company from the Blinder Robinson penny stock brokerage, which the SEC forced out of business and Mr. Blinder went to prison, as many of the brokers came from the wreckage of that company. Every 2-3 months the office I worked at recruited 10-15 new brokers who were offered the opportunity to become full-fledged brokers in a short period of time after passing their series 7 and 63 tests and paying for their licenses. After a 2-3 week training program we were put on the phones and made as many cold calls as we could make in 6 days a week. With this kind of regimen nearly every one of these "new brokers" failed and all the leads they generated were divied up amongst the established brokers in the office after we were unceremoniously shown the door. Essentially we were broker assistants, but weren't told that. Only one person I was aware was successful and lasted longer than a few months, although one of our group did become a broker's assistant. In my group of 15, I was the last one to be laid off and they reported to the NYSE and the SEC that I had quit, which was not true. For my efforts, I was paid what they called "welfare" of $1,085/month, and since they only kept me around a short time and told the authorities I had quit, I could not collect unemployment. This has left a bad taste in month since then about the investment banking industry which coupled with all the other problems the industry had at the time like paying other people to take the series 7 test for them and the Universal Life Insurance boondoggle that hit otherwise reputable companies like John Hancock and Prudential.

The one lesson I learned and I told my clients and prospects this, was that the stock market is not an open-ended money machine. For every dollar someone earns, another person loses a dollar. I don't wish to categorize all the firm's employees as bad people, because there were some brokers who would only sell quality securities, not the worthless junk that the company was pushing. However, I would advise anyone to run, not walk, to the nearest exit if approached by Chatfield Dean for investing.

 

[fish1991]

Oh Ya, I still remember those days, it was 1991, I left my Engineering job to purse position in finance, it wasn't such a good idea...I applied for broker position in Orange County , so they told me that they will help me get my series 7 so they provided short training, and I started making calls, after about 3 weeks I didn't feel good about the whole thing, the guys were make hundreds of cold call a day, and one day I went to lunch and never came back, it took me a while to get back on my feet, but things turned out good for me..