Bogleheads On Investing Podcast · bogleheads

Episode 74: Josh Brown discusses the investment industry in his new book, host Rick Ferri

·58 min·3 clips

Jason Zweig told Josh Brown, 'you did this,' after a fund he criticized shut down.

1. Bogleheads On Investing Episode 74 centers on Josh Brown's path through the investment industry and his book, You Weren't Supposed to See That. 2. Rick Ferri hosts the episode, and Josh Brown is the guest as author, columnist, The Reformed Broker creator, CNBC commentator, and CEO of Ritzhold Wealth Management. 3. The episode asks what Brown saw inside Wall Street, why he started writing about it, and how that perspective shaped his business decisions. 4. Brown says he grew up on Long Island in the 1990s and wanted to do animation for Disney before being told he lacked the technical skills for it. 5. He says he was unmoored after high school, not interested in school, and influenced by what he calls an anti-authority streak from his parents. 6. Brown explains that he started in the brokerage industry in 1996 through a connection his father made, and he was cold calling for a senior broker. 7. He describes Nassau County, Long Island, and the brokerage-heavy strip along Route 110 in Huntington, Melville, Dix Hills, Hop Hog, Great Neck, and Northern Boulevard. 8. Brown says clients were receptive before the internet because they wanted stock-market access, IPOs, and calls from people claiming Wall Street ties. 9. He compares his early years with other Wall Street starters such as Ron Carson selling mutual funds from a car trunk and Jim Cramer using microfiche and fire stairs. 10. Brown says the brokerage firms after Stratton Oakmont spread the Belfort-style phone-selling method while claiming they would do it "legit". 11. He says the tactic was to start with a respectable name like Bristol-Myers or IBM and only later move clients into a stock the firm was making a market in. 12. Brown says he was the quiet broker who read the Quotron and thought about what the room was doing, instead of cheering in morning meetings. 13. Ferri brings up his own Smith Barney experience, where an office manager told him, "I don't want you talking with anyone else in the office," because of his index-fund views. 14. Brown says that over time he realized the sales training worked directly against what was best for customers. 15. He says the light bulb turned on so fully that he could not ignore the conflict, and he eventually left that world after the Great Financial Crisis. 16. Brown says he began The Reformed Broker in November 2008 after his compliance officer first rejected the idea and then told him to print every post for a manila folder. 17. He says the blog let him tell the truth without a gatekeeper, and Jason Zweig later told him a fund shutdown was his doing. 18. Brown says that experience made him more meticulous because real-world people were reading what he wrote and acting on it. 19. The episode has an interview style with Ferri pressing Brown on old brokerage culture, blogging, CNBC, and the economics of building a firm. 20. Listeners who follow Wall Street history, financial blogging, and advisor business models will get the most from it, while people wanting only market forecasts may skip it.

As heard by us

A clear look at how a blogger became a visible voice in investing.

Josh Brown's talk with Rick Ferri is practical more than polished. It tracks how an investor turns into a public voice, with a blog, television, and a firm all feeding the same rise.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear how Josh Brown's blog first got CNBC's attention, and what followed.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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