Trader Jack -The Story of Jack Miner (The Story of Jack Miner Series) by Neil Behrmann

wasn't worried.
    'Thanks, white, two sugars please,' I said observing the hectic dealing. 'Can you ask Mr Wardle if they sold my shares?'
    Tracy with a black bob and bright red lipstick, sauntered up to Wardle in her short black skirt and plain white blouse. He glanced at me and nodded while he was frantically selling shares. She went into his office and brought me some papers.
    Wardle half waved to me: 'You're lucky . . . you're out!'
    Tracy showed me two separate pieces of paper. One of the broker's notes said 'sold 600 OilFinder at £5.90' and the other, 'sold 500 MineDeep at £12.95'. I added the sums. After brokers' commission and stamp duty, I was left with around £9800.
    'What is the price of OilFinder and MineDeep today?' I asked.
    Tracy went to a screen: 'They're falling like stones. Wow! Everything!'
    I finished my coffee and patted Jazz on his head. They were so busy shouting and making excuses that they didn't notice that a dog was in the office. Their clients were very angry. They were blaming their brokers, not themselves.
    'No boom can last forever,' Wardle was explaining down the phone. 'Yes I know the market peaked a fortnight ago . . . It's almost impossible to sell at the top . . .'
    He looked exasperated as he picked up his other phone and shouted out more sell orders.
    Another phone rang and Wardle answered: 'Yes I know that your shares started falling a week ago. Yes, I told you to hold on. No one expected a panic.'
    'I hope it's a correction and the market will settle down,' Drummond was saying. 'Yes it could be a bear market.'
    They were all jabbering at the same time. Then I heard Khosler: 'That Russian bank failure is turning into a full-scale banking crisis. Yes some of our banks are badly exposed. Their shares are well down. All down. Yes, maybe the Bank of England will step in and support the banks. We can only hope.'
    There was no point in doing anything now. They were far too busy. Tracy was typing on her computer. I sidled up alongside her and asked her to search for the price of gold and Ajax Gold Mines, Downtown Mining, Golden Fish Mines, Playdon Discovery and Raven Creek.
    It was remarkable. Despite the general stock market slump, gold and the gold shares were steady. On the terminal screen, almost all the shares were red and falling but the gold shares were blue. Amazing! They were up slightly. I wrote down their prices and went and sat down in the reception area. I took out my aquarium drawing and my orange crayon and worked on the coffee table. I drew my gold fish swimming in the second compartment of my aquarium. Despite the stock market slump they had not fallen back to the bottom division of the tank.
    I looked up and noticed that a tall man with silvery white hair and a white moustache had sat down nearby. He was reading a newspaper, but was peeping at me from time to time, trying to see what I was doing. When he saw that I noticed him, he quickly lifted his newspaper. I could see the headline of the main story on the front page: 'Bank Crisis: Yapolovitch in Russian Mining Fraud'. Further down the page was a photo of a woman and a headline: 'Telegraph's Moscow Correspondent dies'.
    I nervously went across to Wardle and asked if I could speak to him privately.
    'I don't have time to talk,' he snapped. 'OK, I suppose I need a break. Tracy can you get me some coffee?'
    'Thanks for selling my shares. Can I buy some others?'
    'What? In this market?' sighed Wardle. 'You can't be serious.'
    I had written down my order: Buy 1,000 Ajax, 1,000 Downtown, 1,000 Golden Fish, 500 Playdon Discovery and 500 Raven Creek. At the latest market prices they would cost about £9,600, including brokerage charges.
    'OK if you want to lose your money, don't blame me,' said Wardle, sighing. 'I've learnt over the years not to argue with clients. It's your money. If that's what you want to do with it . . .'
    I watched him as he picked up the phone and asked the dealer to buy my gold shares. I sat down in the