The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History

Ref.No.: 6	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Jenkins	Title: Mr
Interviewee's  forenames:  Anthony Sidney
Date of birth:  20 October 1930	Sex: Male

Date(s)   of recording:   16 January 1990
Location of  interview:   Institute of Historical Research
Name of interviewer: Bernard Attard
Type of recorder: Marantz CP 430
Total no.   of tapes: 3	Speed:
Type  of  tape:   TDK SA 60	Noise  reduction:  DBX
Mono or stereo:Stereo	Original or copy:   Copy
Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: No restrictions

SUMMARY  OF  CONTENTS:

Tape 1,   Side 1:

Personal background; father's career in the Stock Exchange; the different types of Stock Exchange clerk; discipline on a blue button; father's early career; AJ's early career; establishment of S. Jenkins & Son; description of the firm; AJ's education; father's view of qualities required by a jobber; traders of father's generation; half-bookmen; spoon-fed jobbers; how father started in jobbing; description of early days of S. Jenkins & Son; communications in Stock Exchange during the 1940s; company announcements; relations between jobbers; relations with brokers; where AJ lived; early days as a blue button; the waiters; early impressions of the Stock Exchange; the Checking Room; the importance of secrecy;, the floor of the House; communal singing.

Tape 1, side 2

Communal singing; characters and nicknames; business in the 1940s; markets in the Stock Exchange; the effect of a jobber clearing out his book; 1973 his worst year as a jobber; authorisation; trading as a blue button; experiences as a broker's clerk; reasons for prefering jobbing; respect of brokers for jobbers; relations between jobbers and brokers; starting the firm; the jobber's pitch; stocks in which Jenkins & Son dealt; the Squirts' Guide; jobbers in the leisure market; Jenkins not a firm that over trades; the jobbers' committee; Jenkins takes up the Hotels' sector; relations among jobbers towards the end of single capacity; the size of bargains; stock borrowing; a typical day in early 1960s; the first day of a new issue, with reference to British Telecom.

Tape 2, side 1

First day of a new issue, BT; typical day resumed; making business; lunch; competition with other jobbers; contacts with clients and company directors; marketability of stocks; new issues; underwriting, with reference to BT; stakebuilding; final stages of typical day; relations with press; press tipping; Adrian Jacobs scandal; the firm's development.

Tape 2, side 2

Development of the firm; BT issue; relations with the Bank; capital; description of leisure/entertainment market; shops; directors and shares in their companies; Sears takeover of Scottish Motor Traction; manipulation of the market; improvement of jobbers' knowledge of companies; jobbers as a source of information; decimalisation; jobbers' meetings; decline in number of firms; hammerings; makeup prices; decision to sell the firm.

Tape 3, side 1

Retirement; attitude to his job; profitability; father's death; retirement; Big Bang; acquisition by Guinness Peat; change in the Stock Exchange before Big Bang; Wedd Durlacher and the temporary House; backwardations; choice prices; opening; people and personalities; Stock Exchange patriotism; the -last Stock Exchange prank; qualities of a successful jobber.