squawk box
v. phr.— «A former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker on trial for selling access to his firm’s “squawk box’ denied allowing clients to eavesdrop on internal orders at the firm, though he said he believed they were entitled to hear them. Kenneth Mahaffy Jr., 51, was the first to testify of seven men on trial in Brooklyn federal court on charges of conspiring to trade off orders made on company intercoms, or squawk boxes. Mahaffy, who worked at Merrill and Citigroup Inc.”s Garden City, New York offices, said he kept clients on conference calls all day, telling them of orders broadcast internally at both firms. “If I heard anything coming over the squawk that interested my clients, I would let them know,” Mahaffy told jurors today. “They are entitled to know what is going on in any particular equity at the trading desks at any time.”» —“Ex-Merrill Broker Denies Giving Clients ‘Squawk Box’ Access ” by Karen Freifeld Bloomberg Apr. 24, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A caller wonders if she’s being hypersensitive about the way her boss addresses her in emails. Can the use of an employee’s first name ever reflect a power differential? And: a community choir director wants a term for “the act of...
Language is always evolving, and that’s also true for American Sign Language. A century ago, the sign for “telephone” was one fist below your mouth and the other at your ear, as if you’re holding an old-fashioned candlestick...