“The market has crashed over thirty percent. The Dow Jones has fallen by over 7000 points just this past hour. Investors won’t stop swearing at me over the phone,” Tim shouted.
The bellowing was so audible through the opaque walls, that Billy frantically checked his computer screen to confirm the worst. By 9am The S&P 500 and NASDAQ had plummeted over 50%. Ironically, he had just secured several new promising investors on Friday. He dreaded their inevitable callous calls. A notification emerged in the corner of his Toshiba laptop. The number of e-mails in his inbox had surged from thirty-five to three hundred and thirty-five in just one hour. The onslaught had already commenced. He opened his account with trepidation and perused the subject headlines:
“How Did You Not Know this was coming?”
“I want my money back”
“The market is crashing”
“I’ll be Suing you for fraud”
This deluge overwhelmed his inbox and cellphone. At one point he distinctly overheard Simon repeatedly bellow, ‘we must weather the storm.’
Billy refrained from taking his usual lunch break. He dreaded being confronted with a barrage of wrath in the staff room. Overhearing Tim’s escalating fury through the supposedly insulated office walls was enough. While Tim wasn’t notorious for being temperamental, unlike other crashes, it wasn’t just the over-hyped tech stocks that were plunging, all indices were crashing. Even JC Stanley’s stock had plunged from $30.30 per share $5.50 within hours, triggering widespread outrage from his clients.
Around 2pm Billy summoned the courage to finally enter the staff room for his Lean Cuisine ravioli, hoping that the angst from the lunch hour crew had dissipated. As he reluctantly sauntered down the corridor, he nearly collided with Simon pacing in circles, muttering unintelligibly. He noted Simon’s ordinarily well-coiffed salt and pepper hair was markedly disheveled. There were distinct frown lines deepening across the corners of his mouth.
“Hi Simon,” Billy sheepishly declared.
“Oh Billy, I assumed you left the office since the disaster hit. I haven’t seen you all day,” Simon hollered.
Evidently, Simon was so distraught that some of his staff members had fled the office in panic rather than, “weather the storm”.
“No, I never left my office. Both my phones haven’t stopped ringing all morning. Clients are infuriatingly demanding answers. Some are demanding the removal of their funds and some are even threatening litigation,” Billy solemnly stated.
Unfortunately, this was the truth. Two major investors had served him legal warnings regarding misrepresentation of the markets. Billy knew if these threats escalated into lawsuits, it would be a very costly venture. Law firms often profit from unforeseen market volatility. The two variables were an investment banking company’s worst nightmare.
“I’m hoping they don’t actually proceed with litigation. That would be terrible publicity for the company, particularly during such a volatile market. I knew that the dot.com bubble burst, but I didn’t predict the crash of all major indices,” Simon adamantly declared.
“I talked to one of the directors of Muriel Lance, in San Francisco this afternoon. He claims that they are obliging with investors’ demands for withdrawals. His rationale is that this bottoming-out of the market will attract other investors. I’m not convinced that’s the optimal path to survive this mess, but honestly, there aren’t many other viable options,” Simon despairingly admitted.
Billy acknowledged that not respecting the orders of investors would result in further legal ramifications. It was only Monday. Inevitably, further falls would transpire.
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