It was a good time. I started in 1987 (checking my own facts, I must have first seen Maria more like 1992-94 not in 88) and retired in 1999.
I was not in NYC and I still have never watched that movie. I knew all about those penny brokers, churn and burners, scammers... but I was an honest broker who could read chart. I made people real money, then again from 1991 to 1997 it was pretty easy to ride the wave.
The Dow in my day went from 1750 to 12,000... pretty much everyone made money. I actually started training in August 1987 and 2 months later, in October 1987, the market crashed.. it was a fucking debacle... but I was not yet in business so I had no clients yet. People were really really worried... but I was set on being a broker, I was not going to quit, even though only 2 of the 6 people I trained with dropped out the first year.
The market climbed a wall of worry from 1988 to 1992... and then in 1993 it took off.
By 1999 interest rates on tax free bonds had drooped from 7%(in the late 80s) down to 2%... and the market was at 12,000.
I could no longer (with a clear conscious) recommend people buy bonds or stocks. Not to mention charging so much for commissions on stock trades when people could do it for 30 bucks per trade online.
For the market to duplicate what it did in the next 10 years it would have to go from 12,000 to 50,000 and I did not see that happening.
The writing was on the wall... it was time for me to move on.
I was with the same from for 12 years... and in June 1999 I gave my book of clients to an honest broker whom I respected (and he who had 3 young kids) and I retired. I never had a single complaint, and most everyone made money and most everyone was happy with me.
I loved the action of finding and pitching and trading stocks. But taht day was over by 1999, I could see it was going to be all about collecting money(assets) and getting paid 1-3%/year on the assets by giving it to professional money managers. That is no fun.
I (still) loved looking at stock charts (and other price charts) and... so yeah... I am one of the few people who never saw (and I have no interest in) that movie. Fuck those cheating scammers.
I liked my clients and they liked me. We all made money. I made a good living (not millions per year) and my clients made money (some made Millions from 1993-1998) but as I said from 1992-1998 it was a gravy train.
I will give one piece of advice.... actually two.
1)Listen to the old guys... they know. They taught me how to read charts.
2)When (very conservative) tax free bond buyers start asking about stocks and wanting to buy them... it signals a market top.
3)What everyone knows is not worth a penny.
4)The "news" shows up in the stock chart long before the news is said on the TV. Show me a take over announcement and I will show where the people on the inside knew 6 months ago... EVERY time.
5) Buy double bottoms..... sell double tops.
6)All you need to know is in the price chart... history repeats.
7) Joey Ramone (yes...of THE RAMONES) wrote a song called Maria Bartiromo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYckn1gplnc
8)Maria and Joey were "friends" - Hear her talk about that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhmhNGHlKbw
9)I love Maria more today than ever before. She is the real deal... for a long long time.