The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: An Oral History
Ref.No.:  25	Playback No.:

Interviewee's surname: Brooks	Title:  Mr
Interviewee's forenames: John Brinsley
Date of birth:    7 March 1937	Sex:  Male

Date(s) of recording: 17 May 1990
Location of interview:  Institute of Historical Research
Name of interviewer:   Bernard Attard
Type of recorder:   Marantz CP 430
Total no. of tapes:      2   Speed:
Type of tape:    TDK AR60     Noise reduction:    DBX
Mono or stereo:   Stereo      Original or copy:   Copy
Additional material: Copyright/Clearance: CMH; no restrictions

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

Tape 1, Side 1

Birth in London; parents; father's family originally tea merchants; father Chairman of Commercial Union; brother a banker; education; attitude to the City at, Eton; no plans when finishes school; National Service; joins Hoare & Co. through a family friend in 1957; description of career with Hoare; description of firm at time of joining; fixed interest issue for Vickers affected by 1957 bank rate rise; research at the firm; first contacts with the jobbers as a blue button; brokers' attitudes to jobbers; jobbers as a source of information; how learnt skills as a broker dealer; specialisation in stocks and markets at Hoare; Hoare UK-orientated; checking prices with jobbers; jobbers' attitude to John Brooks as a young dealer; definition of success as a dealer; problems dealing with the rump of a new issue; early disaster dealing with the rump of a rights issue in Carringtons.

Tape 1, side 2

Rump of Carringtons rights issue; technique as a dealer; 1963-64 starts doing institutional and new issue business; checking prices and deciding which jobber to deal with; dealing with jobbers in a new issue; takeovers; security in a takeover; contested bids; role of jobbers in a rights issue; underwriting; put throughs; Hoare one of.the firms most likely to do a put through; John Brooks' interpretation of rule 90 on put throughs; problems associated with put throughs; broker's salesman matching an order before put through agreed with jobber and ruining the jobber's market; jobbers interfering with a put through; fund managers abusing put throughs; pressures jobbers were under; completion of a put through; minimum turns on put throughs; opposition to price agreements; joint books; attitude brokers breaking an order into small units.

Tape 2, side 1

Clients giving an order in the same stock to several brokers so as to complete it quickly; jobbers' ability to discover the institution involved; contraction in number of jobbing firms not detrimental to ability to deal; feels there was adequate competition in British stocks; more jobbers would have created problems for brokers; competition of foreign securities houses creates pressure for the abolition of single capacity; lack of success in bringing international business into London; advantages to a client in going to' an American stockbroker; contacts between clients and outside Houses; contact between clients and jobbers; pension fund manager who dealt direct with jobbers; Company Annual Meetings; jobbers' research brings them into contact with investors; attitude to jobbers' seeking information; contacts between pension fund manager and Wedd; clients' knowledge of which jobber the broker had dealt with;-clients returning favours to a jobber; summary of causes of tension between jobber and broker; distinctive characteristics of the main jobbing firms; attitude to the jobbers' committee; strengths of single capacity; ease of dealing.   

Tape 2, side 2

Ease of dealing under single capacity; no real weaknesses in single capacity system; characterisation of a jobber; had the wrong kind of a mind to be a jobber.