"Mine is not to reason why, mine is just to sell and buy"
I know that was a quote by Delboy from Only Fools and Horses, but it was always used by Forex traders in th City during the 80s. Also nice, was the brokers lunches and some of the stories they told !!
I remember the infamous "Reknaw" story well....
A broking firm in the City of London, was having a good year at the height of the FX boom time (mid-late 80's) and took on some new staff, including guys who got the job more through who they knew, rather than what they knew.
Anyway, always on the look out for getting one over on a colleague, one such "newbie" was sat down next to some of the boys and after a few days started getting the hang of all the "sqwark boxes", the red lights that lit up when someone spoke over that box and the voices of the people at the other end. After a week, one newbie (let's call him Clive) asked if this was all there was too it and added that he thought "anyone with half a brain could do it". So, being ever on the lookout for a victim, the old lag (let's call him John) said that Clive could have one of his lines to start him off and he was sure others would follow. Sure enough the technicians were called and a Sqwark box was moved from in front of John, to Clive's new desk. There he sat, with his telephone and one box, with the tag "Reknaw" stuck to the top of it. All day, Clive was shouting out prices down the line to Reknaw but he couldn't get any business. After his first day "on the boxes", he went home tired and a little bemused, after all, he had been quoting decent prices all day long, but no business came his way.
At this point, you should already have realised that "Reknaw" has another meaning when read backwards !! Also, in order to keep the ruse going, John havd arranged with a good buddy of his, who was also one of his actual bank lines that he spoke to everyday, that he would take on the pretence of being a trader from Reknaw.
Day 2 on the boxes and Clive's in before anyone else and ready to go. The day starts in earnest, traders catch the end of the far east markets and start getting London's market off and running. The Dollar/Mark boys are quoting and trading like nobodies business, all except Clive !! He's quoting prices and today he has noticed that from time to time, he gets asked for a quote from Reknaw. Sure enough he gets a price, but evry time the client declines the prices and states he has traded better elsewhere. Clive goes home totally bemused and almost a broken man - what a change from the chap who was full of himself the week before
Wednesday starts and Reknaw again asks for prices, Clive is on the case all day long. Same again Thursday, but still no trades.
The boys now feel that Clive has been "bloeeded" in traditional fashion and the joke has gone far enough. They take him out Thursday night and even get John's mate to make an appearance so that he will hopefully see the funny side of it and then they could all have a good laugh, loads to drink and get on with life, but no...... Clive just couldn't accept it was a wind-up, at least not until the next day when one of the telex operators lent her mirror to John and they showed Clive what Reknaw looked like backwards !!
Then again, there's the Christmas tale of the "white Rhino sh-it", but that's a story for another time methinks
