Description
"Wouldn't you like to be a millionaire?"
This was the question that super-broker Peter Brant posed to R. Foster Winans, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, in October of 1983. "You tell me what's going to be in the 'Heard on the Street' column the day before it appears, and you'll become a millionaire."
Nearly two years later, Brant had been drummed out of the brokerage industry and Winans faced 18 months in prison. The gravy train had run off the track.
In between occurred one of the most fascinating and dramatic stories ever of fear, greed and scandal on Wall Street. The "Heard on the Street" column, co-written by Winans, was read by an estimated 2.5 million people every business day. Peter Brant knew that stocks mentioned in the column often rose or fell the day the paper hit the newsstands, and planned to use the advance information to boost his sagging brokerage commissions. In the words of one stock exchange official, early access to the "Heard" column was akin to knowing "which horse would win the fifth race at Pimlico tomorrow."
But Winans never got his million dollars. Out of a profit of nearly $700,000, he received $30,000, a ruined career and a jail sentence.
In Trading Secrets, Foster Winans himself reveals the human drama of this scandal, the biggest in the history of The Wall Street Journal, and one that appeared on the front page of every major newspaper in America. He also offers the inside story of the corporate culture and inner workings of Wall Street.
ISBN:0312812272
