As a junior trader at the now-defunct hedge-fund company Galleon Group LLC, Turney Duff was surprised by how eagerly he was courted by securities-firm salesmen.
He later concluded that in their hunt for commissions, Wall Streeters buy options on people much like options on stocks.
“Today I might not be the head of the desk or control most of Galleon’s order flow, but it’s in their best interest to befriend me early in my career,” he writes in his absorbing memoir, “The Buy Side.” “Take care of me now, and I’ll remember you later.”
Taken care of he was, with nightly business dinners, all-expenses-paid junkets to Miami, Las Vegas and the Super Bowl, and lines and lines of cocaine from brokers he traded with.
He speaks with Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television's "Money Moves."
