Chapter 4 of 30 · 5'03"
Jordan talks his way into a tiny Long Island boiler room that trades penny stocks off the pink sheets. He watches a salesman pitch garbage to strangers, then picks up the phone himself and runs the same play on a man named John — promising him, with total conviction, that "we are looking at a grand slam home run."
❝ Monologue · 23 lines Jordan's First Big Cold Call
Told he can make more money selling penny stocks than blue chips, Jordan visits a shabby office called the Investor's Center. There he learns the trade: pink-sheet stocks, cold calls, and a pitch that promises ordinary people they can get rich quick. He tries the script himself and lands his first big sale.
The real subject is not the stock but the performance. Jordan does not yet know the business, so he copies the man beside him: the script, the certainty, the flattery. The lesson he takes away is that the pitch matters more than the product — he is "selling garbage to garbage men", and the money still rolls in. The line he uses on John, that "we are looking at a grand slam home run" is technically about a stock, but it is really about a promise no one can keep, delivered with a straight face. By the end he is not just learning to sell; he is discovering that he is very good at it, which is the more dangerous discovery.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“The only problem you're gonna have is that you didn't buy more.”
It flips a warning into a sales push, making the client fear his own caution.
Informal
“we are looking at a grand slam home run.”
The baseball image sells the stock as a sure winner, pure pitchman poetry.
Informal
“I ask them to judge me on my losers because I have so few.”
It invites judgment on his failures and then quietly claims there are almost none.
Informal
“The other guys looked at me like I'd just discovered fire.”
Their shock is measured against the discovery of fire, an instant visual.
Informal
Hello, John, how are you doing today? You mailed in my company a postcard a few weeks back requesting information on penny stocks that had huge upside potential with very little downside risk. - Does that ring a bell? - Yeah, I may have sent something. Okay, great. The reason for the call today, John, is, something just came across my desk, John. It is perhaps the best thing I've seen in the last six months. the idea with you. You got a minute? Actually, I'm really very... The name of the company, Aerotyne International. It is a cutting edge high-tech firm out of the Midwest awaiting imminent patent approval on the next generation of radar detectors that have both huge military and civilian applications now. Right now, John, And by the way, John, our analysts indicate it could go a heck of a lot higher than that. Jesus! That's my mortgage, man. Exactly. You could pay off your mortgage. This stock will pay off my house? John, one thing I can promise you, even in this market, is that I never ask my clients to judge me on my winners. I ask them to judge me on my losers because I have so few. And in the case of Aerotyne, based on every technical factor out there, John, we are looking at a grand slam home run. Let me lock in that trade right now and get back to you with my secretary with an exact confirmation. Sound good, John?
Up next · 05an in with someoneThe scene: Donnie Quits His Job for JordanPenny stocks trade off the pink sheets, outside the major exchanges, so regulation and disclosure are looser. That is exactly why the margins and the marks are so large.
He sounds like a friend, knows John mailed in a card, and builds a story about an imminent patent before promising a grand slam. He sells certainty, not facts.
It means making money fast and in large amounts. Jordan uses it to show that once the script worked, cash came in with little effort.
Donnie is a neighbor drawn to Jordan's expensive car. He introduces himself in the parking lot and asks how Jordan makes his money, which starts their partnership.
