The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.: 27.	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Pitcher	Title: Mr
Interviewee's forenames: Kenneth James
Date of birth:   9 December 1942	sex: Male

Date(s) of recording: 12 June 1990
Location of interview: Warburg Securities
Name of interviewer:  Bernard Attard
Type of recorder:  Marantz CP 430
Total no. of tapes:      2    Speed:
Type of tape:   TDK AR 60    Noise reduction:   DBX
Mono or stereo:  Stereo      Original or copy:  Copy
Additional material:	 Copyright/Clearance: no reply

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 

Tape 1, Side 1

Birth in London in 1942; family background; education/joins Berger & Gosschalk through an employment agency after finishing school; did not know much about the City; attitude to money in the family; starts with Berger in 1959; first jobs as office boy; job interview/description of the firm; becomes a blue button; early recollections of the Stock Exchange; feelings about having joined a Stock Exchange firm; Berger's pitch; Ken Pitcher a blue button on the property book; the property book; the partners; Berger known as bear jobbers; a family firm; mergers with other jobbing firms; markets in .which Berger made its profits; becomes an authorised clerk.; jobbers who influenced Ken Pitcher; their qualities as jobbers; importance of a jobber's gut feeling; how avoided doing a broker's business ('shooting'); manipulating board prices; knowledge of an opposition jobber's prices; shunters; arbitrage; arbitrage during a takeover bid; jobbers caught short during a takeover bid; the markets in which Berger traded; open bidding; shops; Berger's agent in Johannesburg; contacts with South Africa; contacts with domestic companies; jobbers as a source of information; the importance of information to jobbers; Ken Pitcher is given his own book on the property pitch; the system for remunerating dealers.

Tape 1, side 2

Successes as a dealer; Berger maintains high turnover; dexterity in calculating figures; jobbers that Berger was competing with; relationship between big and small jobbers; membership; partnership; at the time of Ken Pitcher becoming a partner, Berger is a similar firm to Smith Brothers; position taking becomes a much more important part of jobbing; effect on liquidity, risk and reward; firm brings in limited partners; finance provided by the banks; takes over property pitch; typical day; broking firms with which Berger did a lot of business; Berger becomes 'the market1 in property shares; factors keeping a market competitive; attitudes to a jobber moving into a new sector; final stages of a typical day; periods when busy as a blue button; holidays; memories of 1970s property boom and slump; 1974 13 per cent base rate and switching from a bull to a bear position; property book stays profitable during the recession; rumours that Berger in financial difficulty; Berger directors decide to close the firm; majority of members go to Akroyd; characteristics of Berger-at the time of closure; feeling in the Stock Exchange about the demise of Berger; leeway allowed by Akroyd to the jobbers from Berger; contrast of Akroyd with Berger.

Tape 2, side 1

Akroyd style of jobbing orientated towards position taking; skill involved in running a position; reasons for running large positions; capital never a problem at Akroyd; Akroyd becomes a public company; advantages of combining gilt and equity jobbing in a single firm; pressures on jobbers to deal; pressures on single capacity; put throughs; stock trading outside the Stock Exchange; clients dealing with American banks; jobbers remain a source of information to brokers; contacts with brokers clients - mainly dealers; institutions which abuse the market; deterioration in dealing etiquette prior to Big Bang; price agreements; Ken Pitcher becomes a director of Akroyd; career with Warburg; changes in jobbing during Ken Pitcher's career; jobbing still competitive; a greater number of jobbers would not have improved the system; effect of a greater number of jobbers on liquidity; feelings about the abolition of single capacity; relationships between jobbers and brokers; effects of relationships on competitiveness; benefits of having remained on the same pitch; brokers who specialised in property shares; distinctive characteristics of property shares.

Tape 2, side 2

Effect of interest rates on property shares; contrast of Stock Exchange when Ken Pitcher started his career with when he stopped jobbing; memorable brokers; memorable jobbers; strength of the single capacity system is that the entire order flow is shown to the market; weakness of the jobbing system was its inadequate capital base; qualities of a good jobber; Ken Pitcher's feelings about his Stock Exchange career.