On the Floor Read Online Free Page A

upwards and he said,
Word on the street says Felix is taking a run at Cargo. That he’s short selling the stock all the way down. Though we can’t be sure it’s him
. The Grope thumped his fist into the back of the chair.
It’s got Felix Mann’s butt-fucking footprint all over it. So YOU need to talk to him
. Ed chewed his cheek and muttered
Thing is he…uh … still won’t take our call
. He looked down at the familiar landscape of his shoes and the Grope stared at his bowed head as if from a great height, although it was really only a couple of inches.
This Cargo deal is sinking like a stone so I don’t give a shit what you do, Karetsky, you STOP this guy
. I timed Ed’s silence. After seven long seconds he nodded and mumbled
Yes
, which was all you really can say in a room where the knives are out. But the truth was Felix could sell Cargo’s stock right down to zero if he wanted and there was absolutely nothing Ed could do to stop him. In fact, there was nothing anyone could do to stop Felix doing anything because no one at Steiner’s had a relationship with him back then. And although this was ultimately the Grope’s failure since he was Head of Trading and Sales, he needed to pass that efficiently down the food chain.
    A sudden sunburst blazed through the window and the Grope flexed his shoulders, his white shirt flared yellow, like the rippling hide of a slow-motion lion tearing into a felled antelope. The two guys from Capital Markets tensed like a pair of craning coyotes and the Grope said the thing about Felix’s asshole and I thought: well that’s fine, but how can you rip out someone’s asshole if you can’t even get them to return your calls?
    I half-ran along the corridor to keep up with Ed, scrambling for some upbeat remarks, trying to make him forget I’d witnessed his public humiliation, but it was too late, I had lost his good will. He stopped dead in the centre of the corridor, leaned in so close I could smell his mouthwashed breath.
Go play with the traffic, Geri
, he snarled,
I’ve got some real work to do
and he slammed through the double doors, leaving me to reflect on an important lesson that I was lucky to learn so early on: shit travels downhill, don’t you ever forget it.
    Cargo’s stock fell 21% that day and the company was forced to call off the deal. Two months later, irregularities were discovered in their financial accounts, the CEO resigned on the back of the announcement and the whole embarrassing mess snowballed into a very public media witch-hunt, with Steiner’s name written all over it. Felix had made an estimated eight million bucks buying back his stock and emerged from the rubble making a lot of smart guys look very stupid indeed. In the dash for cover and the ensuing whitewash, there was a rash of internal changes in the chain of command at Steiner’s. A handful of analysts and bankers were quietly scalped for falling asleep at the wheel. Ed was sacked for running a sales force that had failed to develop a relationship with one of the most important clients outside of the US. When they came for him he said
I guess I should take my jacket, huh
, in a final attempt at gallows humour.
Watch your back, kiddo
he said to me but I just nodded. The rest of the desk buried their heads in the phones, shrinking from the noxious odour of failure as if it might be contagious. The security guard stood waiting by the exit like the Grim Reaper and Ed slapped him on the shoulder and turned to face down the trading floor.
I love you all, you fuckers
he bellowed but no one said a word and Ed walked out the double doors and was swallowed by the great sea, as if he had never been.
    There but for the grace of God, etcetera
, said Al.
God’s got nothing to do with it
, Rob muttered.
Karetsky was always a tosser
.
    The general consensus at Steiner’s is that the Cargo fall-out cost the Grope about two career