I survived the sex, drugs, and misogyny of 90s Wall Street to make millions – New York Post

Cin Fabr and her investment partner Aldano were walking briskly through the halls of a Times Square hotel one evening. Key in hand, they opened the door to a room they had booked and found themselves staring at the bare behind of one of their clients, caught in the middle of the act with a sex worker. Wordlessly, the pair closed the door while their client, oblivious, continued what he was doing.

This was par for the course for Fabr. While she and Aldano had walked in to ensure the hotel room was clean and client-ready, she was unfazed by her clients actions. As a stockbroker on Wall Street in the late 1990s, she often found herself enticing clients to stay with her firm by offering them drinks, dinner, and dessert dessert being the services of a sex worker. As a broker, Fabr considered it part of her job to make sure that clients were satisfied. That meant checking to make sure hotel rooms were up to standard for whatever was being offered.

Fabr was in her mid-twenties at the time, the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She had no college degree. But she was handling millions of dollars, including the portfolio of an owner of a prestigious UK football team, working at one of the oldest firms on the New York Stock Exchange.

How she got there is the subject of her memoir, Wolf Hustle: A Black Woman on Wall Street (Henry Holt, out now) which chronicles the racism, sexism, and hedonism that ran Wall Street until the dot-com crash and which Fabr believes still runs Wall Street today.

Fabr had always had the hustle mentality. As a teenager in a Long Island City high school, Fabr would steal lunch tickets from the school office and sell them for their $1 face value, using sales skills to get students to buy from her rather than the school. She also worked part-time in a Cohens Fashion Optical outlet, taking in $50,000 a year before high school graduation. And when a friend offered her an interview with his investment company, Fabr jumped at the chance.

I knew I could be a stockbroker, Fabr says to the Post. There was no doubt in my head I could do it. I never had this question, Oh my God, Im a woman and Im black. I actually thought that was my advantage. I could be the dark horse that no one sees coming.

The reality was different. The firm where she was interviewing, VTR, was an offshoot of Stratton Oakmont, the firm made famous in the 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street. Like Stratton Oakmont, it was known in Wall Street parlance as a chop shop or boiler room a firm selling securities by pumping up stock shares of certain house stocks and companies. And she wasnt interviewing for a broker job she was interviewing to be a cold caller. The expectation was that she commit to working 12 hour days, making at least 500 phone calls a day in order to generate ten leads to give to her broker. If she was able to manage this for at least three months, she might be able to receive the books to study for a Series 7 license the entrance bar to become a stockbroker.

The brokers insulted the cold callers, plied them with cocaine to keep up with the hours, and occasionally threw lavish Hamptons parties with strippers as guests to keep them coming back to work. Wives were never seen at these parties. Through it all, Fabr observed everything and kept her head down. Id have a cocktail, but I didnt want the distraction, she says. I would look at the brokers and they were the best reason to never do drugs. They looked like fools every day. And I was on my own high. I had a passion for what I was doing.

Fabrknew the cold calls were a means to an end there was no doubt in her mind she would move to the other side of the room and be a stockbroker.

Once Fabr passed her Series 7, she moved to the other side of the room and respect for her increased.

As the only woman and the only Black person who worked as a broker, her colleagues were unsure how to relate to her. They joked about the size of her breasts; her boss often asked her to compare her breast size to different fruit sizes. She would mumble a response. It just wasnt worth it to show the men you were bothered by their lewd comments or hooting jokes, she writes. There was simply no way to respond to every inappropriate act. I never would have gotten my work done if I tried.

Brokers would ceremoniously have their tie clipped when they opened their first account. But, sinceFabr wasnt wearing a tie, the brokers jeered for her bra to be cut. Eventually, they settled for shaking her hand.

I could be the dark horse that no one sees coming.

While Fabr felt she had earned the respect of the brokers, shebegan to realize that what the firm was selling wasnt necessarily making investors money. Im 20 years old. I didnt have any education. What I knew was sales. And the information we were getting was rigged. But there was barely any internet, I didnt think to pick up the newspaper and analyze the stocks, so I bought into the hype.

Fabr didnt realize VTR was in trouble, but a broker who had left the firm explained what was going on and invited her to interview at his firm. His firm, a respected Wall Street company, was where Fabr began her legitimate financial education. But overall, Fabr felt her clients respected her.

I would answer the phone by barking, Fabr! Fabr says. You better be calling me to give me more money. Dont call me for any other reason. I wasnt here to babysit anyone. I wasnt here to have these hour-long conversations about your partners or your wife or whatever it is that you were going through. I was here to make you money. And if you werent going to pay me for my time, as far as investing, then we had nothing to talk about.

At one point, Fabr flew to the UK to meet some of her high-net worth clients. She writes about how one of her UK clients, who owned almost all the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in England, was taken aback when he saw her.

I didnt know you were Black, he said quietly.

I didnt know you were white, Fabr threw back at him.

Moments like these forged Fabrs backbone, but they also left a mark on her psyche.

I always walked in like I owned the room. You know what I mean?, says Fabre. And if youre a good guest, we can hang out. But if youre going to come at me, then youve got to go.

Even at the more respected firm, Fabr felt her clients were always testing her, trying to see if she would sleep with them. It was something all my clients hinted at, she says. But they also immediately saw how tough I was. So I feel like I scared and excited my clients at the same time. But I would have to say,If you wouldnt talk like this to a man, dont talk to me like that. Dont treat me any different. Dont expect me to comfort you and hold your hand more because I am a woman. Im not your mother. You know what I mean? Im nothing like her. So I think there was a lot of respect that came with that.

Fabrs stockbroker career ended in early January 2002, shortly after her mother and her brother passed away. She was successful, but her entire life was wrapped up in work. The aftermath of September 11 had caused marketturmoil, and she felt herself pondering her purpose. I thought of everyone who had been lost on 9/11 and all the words the families didnt get to share with their loved ones who died,Fabr writes. No amount of money could have brought back those cherished sentences. She passed her book of business to her partner, took her Gucci purse and left. I had given everything I had to fight and stay and be respected in the business, and I had won, Fabr writes.

Today, Fabr lives with her wife and her four children in Paris. She invests privately, but has spend the last several decades primarily focused on her family.

If I had to do it over again, I would, says Fabr. At the end of the day, its a New York story. Were the type of place where were like, Hey, if you have a dream, you can make it. Thats why everyone comes to America, right? The American Dream. And my parents believed in that. And whether its an immigrant mentality, I believe in it. And its what I teach my kids.

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I survived the sex, drugs, and misogyny of 90s Wall Street to make millions - New York Post