The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.: 20	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Ferguson	Title: Mr
Interviewee's forenames: Graham
Date of birth:   20 May 1934	Sex: Male

Date(s) of recording: 26 April 1990
Location of interview: Institute of Historical Research
Name of interviewer:  Bernard Attard
Type of recorder:  Marantz CP 430
Total no. of tapes:	Speed:
Type of tape:   TDK AR-60    Noise reduction:   DBX
Mono or stereo:  Stereo      Original or copy:  Copy
Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: CMH; any attribution of fact or direct quotation from the interview is subject to my permission for a period of thirty years.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Tape 1, Side 1

Personal and family background; father the senior partner with the jobbing firm Ferguson & Clark; early attitude to Stock Exchange; career plans; family attitude to money; education; how joins Wedd Jefferson; description of Wedd Jefferson; first jobs; blue button; first impressions of Stock Exchange; attitude to brokers; description of the gilt market; bond washing; Stock Exchange ethics; early experiences as a blue button; becomes a dealer; the colonial pitch; the short-dated gilt-edged pitch; Victor Wood; mechanics of the short-dated market; business Wedd Jefferson was doing; Francis & Praed; Wedd Jefferson merger with Kitchin Baker Mason (KBM) and joint book with Durlacher; Graham Ferguson and Peter Lyster told to deal in equities; merger with Hadow & Turner.

Tape 1, side 2

Merger with Hadow & Turner; experience of running an equity book with KBM partners; Stock Exchange membership and partnership; relationship with father; marriage; typical day £. 1960; importance of good relations with brokers; the press; research; the Bank of England; the government broker; comparison of different markets in the gilt market; comparison of different skills required by equity and by gilt jobbers; Wood buys 42 million stock from the government broker; 1957 seven per cent bank rate and the Bank Rate tribunal; Wedd Durlacher badly caught out by the collapse of Rolls Royce; merger with Durlacher; experience of, reasons for and consequences; management; capital; Graham Ferguson's error in buying Vanesta shares; contrast equity and gilt markets; shop' brokers and insider information; put throughs; price agreements.

Tape 2, side 1

Price agreements; joint books; the interim Stock Exchange and the new Stock Exchange; value of keeping an eye on the opposition; 1974 recession; contraction in the number of jobbing firms and the consequences; unmarketability of stocks; move into management and the role of management in a jobbing firm; Gerald Dennis; Graham Ferguson's management duties; co-ordination of employment and pay conditions with other jobbing firms; feelings about moving into management; arguments for and against Wedd Durlacher becoming a listed company; distinctive qualities of Wedd Durlacher; Wedd Durlacher's experiences in run-up to Big Bang; feeling in firm about referral of rule book to Office of Fair Trading; feeling about Goodison/Parkison pact of 1983; strengths of the jobbing system; weaknesses of the jobbing system; riskiness of jobbing; advice to someone wishing to join the Stock Exchange; qualities of a successful jobber; memorable individuals; Dick Wilkins and Esmond Durlacher.

Tape 3, side 1: Appendix (Speech to Churchill Club, Chichester, 27 November 1987)

Graham Ferguson's qualifications to speak about the City; description of old Stock Exchange; Stock Exchange ethics; functions of broker and jobber; dissatisfaction among some City institutions with Stock Exchange monopoly. Minimum commissions and restrictions on membership; referral of Stock Exchange rule book to Office of Fair Trading; decline of the small investor and the rise of the institutions; development of arbitrage; broking firms become members of other Stock Exchanges; link between the abolition of minimum commissions and the end of single capacity; merger of Stock Exchange firms with other City institutions; consequences for ethics; importance of strong management; reasons why things have gone wrong with reform of the Stock Exchange; decline in ethical standards and the over regulation of the market; ineffectiveness of Chinese Walls; insider information; description of new trading system; market-makers less likely to take risks; too many market-makers; smaller market-markers likely to be eliminated; development of large conglomerates offering wide range of services and small specialist firms; ease of dealing; swiftness of communications; Stock Exchange humour; regret at the passing of single capacity.