A college dropout, attempting to live up to his father's high standards, gets a job as a broker for a suburban investment firm which puts him on the fast track to success. But the job might not be as legitimate as it first appeared to be.
Seth Davis is a college dropout running an illegal casino from his rented apartment. Driven by his domineering father's disapproval at his illegitimate existence and his desire for serious wealth, Seth suddenly finds himself seduced by the opportunity to interview as a trainee stock broker from recent acquaintance Greg (Nicky Katt). Walking into the offices of JT Marlin, a small time brokerage firm on the outskirts of New York - Seth gets an aggressive cameo performance from Jim (Ben Affleck) that sets the tone for a firm clearly placing money above all else. Seth's fractured relationship with his father and flirtatious glances from love interest Abbie (Nia Long) are enough to keep Seth motivated in his newfound career. As he begins to excel and develop a love for the hard sale and high commission, a few chance encounters lead Seth to question the legitimacy of the firm's operations - placing him once again at odds with his father and what remains of his morality. With homages to Wall Street, and Glengarry Glen Ross, it's a decent debut feature for Ben Younger whose script exposes a truly sinister side of an already immoral business.—anonymous
With dreams of a better life, Seth Davis, a Queens College dropout who fails to meet the high expectations of his stern judge father, lands a job in J.T. Marlin, a small brokerage house. As the new employee learns the tricks of the trade, getting increasingly efficient in selling the firm's exclusive products over the phone, money starts to flow into Seth's bank account, making a profit for himself and the company with seemingly legitimate but unfair means. In an attempt to earn his father's respect, Seth becomes a member of the company, bringing himself before pressing dilemmas, troubling situations, and moral distress. Can Seth handle the truth?—Nick Riganas
A young man has dropped out of Queens College but desperately wants to please his father, a federal judge who's harsh with his son. At his father's insistence, Seth Davis closes a casino he operates in his own house, mostly for college students. Thinking he'll please dad, he takes a job in a small brokerage house, an hour from Manhattan, where trainees make cold calls to lists of well-paid men, and then apply high-pressure tactics to sell initial public offerings exclusive to the firm. He's terrific at sales. Once training is over, the pay is phenomenal, and Seth wonders why. Curiosity leads him to ethical dilemmas, encounters with the Feds, and new territory with his father.—<[email protected]>
In 1999 Seth Davis (Ribisi), a 19-year-old college dropout runs an illegal but successful underground casino in his Queens apartment. His father Marty (Rifkin), a New York City federal judge, disapproves of him and worries that Seth's criminal living may cost him his judgeship. In hopes to get on his father's good side, Seth joins J.T. Marlin, a brokerage firm based in a normal office building in or near Commack, NY, after Greg Weinstein (Katt) comes to his home to check out Seth's business and offers him a job at the firm. Seth agrees and becomes a trainee under Weinstein.
Everything seems to work out for Seth in the early days of his job. Arriving at J.T. Marlin, he learns from Jim Young (Ben Affleck), one of the heads of the company, what he needs to do to become a millionaire working at the firm. Seth learns the ways of the company and does very well at his new job. He also embarks on a romance with Abbie Halpert (Long), an ex-girlfriend of Greg's, which Greg shows disapproval of and who often worries about her effect on his friends and workers. Seth also becomes part of the crowd of successful stockbrokers, including Chris Varick (Vin Diesel) and Richie O'Flaherty (Caan), and lives a high-life type of lifestyle with them, usually going out to restaurants with them and seeing their fights with other people. He hits a few snags though, including fights and arguments he has with Greg when Greg becomes too worried about Seth's explosively good work at his job, and when Seth closes down his casino because his employees don't appreciate their significantly increased salaries.
Seth is unaware of the dark side of his quickly successful job, as the FBI have been tracking the firm for a period of time. The company is a chop shop brokerage firm that runs a "pump and dump", using its brokers to create artificial demand in the stock of expired or fake companies by cold calling investors and selling them shares at prices set by the brokerage firm, which include a large commission to the brokers (up to three dollars a share for a penny stock). When the firm is done pumping the stock, the investors then have no one to sell their shares in the market, and the price of the stock plummets. This becomes a problem for one of Seth's clients, Harry Reynard, a family man who is a purchasing manager of a gourmet foods company and is trying to buy a new house.
After Seth sells him one hundred shares at eight dollars each, the stock market plummets and gets Harry into an excruciating financial situation. When Harry calls Seth back asking why the investment has done so poorly, Seth (under coercion from Greg) sells him even more worthless shares, convincing Harry to invest his $50,000 down-payment that he was saving for a family home. Seth promises a smooth process in the investment; however this promise does not live up and causes Harry to be abandoned by his family. Now well aware of the firm's fraudulent and unethical practices, Seth becomes deeply unnerved by his work environment and how he has knowingly scammed Harry.
After being set up by Abbie (who was working with the police) Seth is arrested by the FBI for the violation of SEC regulations. He is taken into custody by the FBI along with his father, who was taken in for attempting to conceal his son from the federal law - a conversation that was of a taped phone call. Seth is given federal immunity, meaning he cannot be arrested for as long as he agrees to testify against J.T. Marlin once all the suspects are taken into court. He does this on the condition his father does not get involved with the case, as he exchanges that for information on the firm's techniques of selling, relocation if law enforcement gets too close, etc. Seth is released and instructed by the FBI to return to work the next day, only to gather evidence and leave shortly before the FBI raid the building by midday. To deliver evidence that can be used against the firm, he inserts files of investments onto a floppy disk and hides it away. Before leaving, Seth attempts to get Harry's money back by lying to J.T. Marlin the way they do with their clients.
Michael Brantley (Scott), one of the company heads, agrees to go along with Seth's explanation, saying that in order to complete the process, Seth needs a ticket sale signed by a senior broker, something that his direct supervisor, Greg, has explicitly said that he would never do. On his way out of the building, Seth leaves Chris a note asking to meet in private, at which point he informs Chris about the raid and convinces him to sign the sale ticket. Chris then hastily gathers a few belongings from his desk and quickly leaves. Seth is then shown walking past Abbie in the reception area, ignoring her, and then leaving the building deciding what to do with his life now that his job and ties with J.T. Marlin are finished. As he leaves, several cars including prison buses are seen speeding into the parking lot from which FBI agents emerge, ready to raid the building.
