Traders - Season 1

1. Options

Aired: 2/1/1996

Cedric Ross is arrested for fraud and embezzlement after a judge whom he had lost money for years earlier signs the indictment papers. The absence of Cedric gives Adam the opportunity he'd been looking for to sell the Bank. In order to protect his interests Cedric signs his controlling interest in Gardner/Ross over to his daughter Sally, an Economics Professor at a University. Marty's old trading adversary Jack Larkin arrives from Vancouver with the desire to become an investment banker. Jack impresses Sally and Adam after he is able to score a major deal. Sally sells him shares in the company at three times book value giving him a seat on the executive committee. Jack's deal with the gold mining firm nearly bankrupts the firm when a major investor pulls out. Jack insists Gardner/Ross can carry the additional cost of the loan, and in a daring set of trading moves single handedly saves the firm and sells the outstanding debt to private investors.

2. Pennies From Heaven

A Fire alarm causes the trading floor to evacuate. Marty demands everyone return to work in order to sell a large block of shares he just got, and fires all of those who don't return. This of course ends up skrewing him the next day when half of his employees don't show up for work. Sally is concerned that the SEC may uncover an impropriety at Gardner/Ross, now that her father is incarcerated. She orders Marty to cease any and all trades that might be considered immoral, or unethical, even though they are all legal. He refuses and demands she either fire him, or get off his floor. Jack leaks a news story to the paper that Gardner/Ross is about to announce a major buyout deal. He sets forth to earn his pay by organizing a buyout of a smaller company, on behalf of a larger company. The only problem is that he has neither a buyer, nor seller. With only 4 days to go before the target date he must convince the owner of a large airline company to buy a new upstart company that has crea

3. Bad Is Good

Sally is becoming extremely over cautious. With her Father still in the hospital, under arrest she'll stop at nothing to keep the image of the firm clean. Adam's deal with BritRail didn't contain an out clause, when the price of the stock begins to plummet, Gardner/Ross is on the hook for a two million dollar loss. This of course puts Jack's deal in jeopardy when the company comes up short Jack is forced to take drastic measures and hire a legendary Derivatives trader Grant Janksy. After a difficult negotiation that saw Gardner/Ross shell out over 50 pounds of chocolate a week to Mr Jansky's habit, he agrees to come out of retirement. Susannah discovers an inconsistency in the search warrant that allows Cedric to go free. Marty covers his short positions in Navidyne, violating Sally's restricted list. An action that gets him in trouble, but ultimately saves the company from near bankruptcy. Grant moves into his new office and begins his derivative trading that earns the firm enough

4. The King is Dead...

Gardner/Ross is in trouble. The Securities Commission is out for blood, and they're tearing the company apart with their questions. After the debacle that helped get Cedric acquitted, the Commission will stop at nothing, till they find something dirty inside the bank. Sally begins to look into her father's former indictment and discovers he was in fact guilty. Jack has his day off, although you wouldn't know it. Between his phone ringing off the hook calling him for emergency meetings, and his father being moved from hospital to hospital for a series of tests, he hardly has any time to himself. Meanwhile, A good trade from his near past, seems to point the finger at Marty. Adam decides to give the commission Marty in order to get them to stop sniffing around, but Sally refuses to allow him to become the sacrificial lamb. Sally strikes a deal with the Commission. She refuses to sign her father's shares back to him, and Cedric storms out in fury. Jack's father is diagnosed with te

5. ...Long Live The King

Gardner/Ross' Trading floor is lacking without Marty, meanwhile, Marty is lacking without the Trading Floor. Adam & Sally interview the other traders to Marty's temporary replacement. They seem unimpressed by most of them, and are shocked when they finally meet Grant Jansky. Benny ends up with the job, but his inexperience with computers quickly becomes his Achilles heel, causing big timing problems. The problems are so apparent Adam even warns him to clean up his act, or he might be out of a job. On the hostile takeover side Sally & Adam are preparing a hostile takeover of D'Arby Forest, putting their resource specialist Donald D'Arby into a very difficult position. Anne finally starts to show some interest in Jack, as the two share lunch in her office. Jack's Father gets sicker. Jack refuses to go Benny's luck begins to improve after Marty, sick to death of his suspension, phones Benny with some information (violating SEC rules) He phones him the next day, and gives him more in

6. From Russia With Love

The police interview Susannah's daughter, after she is dropped off at the firm by Susannah's stalker. She takes the day off which starts a series of bets as the traders try to figure out what's going on in her personal life. A bet which may not be far off. The strain of the stalker is starting to take its toll on Susannah's marriage, with her husband becoming more and more hostile towards her busy lifestyle. Adam assigns Jack to manage a 10 million dollar IPO for an independent record label. Jack fears the deal is badly flawed. The company's future debt will soon exceed its IPO revenue by 3 to 1. Adam talks to Jansky about hedging the IPO deal. He asks him to come up with a plan to make money off the money he plans on losing in the deal. Sally buys a share of Millenia Construction, the stock the stalker is trying to get Susannah to recommend, in order to get the shareholder's list. She tracks down a broker she knows and tries to find out which of his clients is buying the stock.

7. Dancing With Mr. D.

8. Into That Good Night

Marty returns to the trading floor, where he receives a warm reception, and a pair of golden handcuffs for him and his wife. Frank is put in the hospital suffering from an ailment brought on by a new experimental cure for his cancer. The cancer is defeated, but the cure is in fact a virus that kills cancer. The virus has now mutatad, and is now killing him. He refuses to be put on an artificial respirator unless Jack agrees to give his sister her mother's wedding ring. He does not want to die without having her forgive him. Jack and him have a short conversation (the first one in the series where they don't fight) where he tells his father that he beat cancer and that he can beat this too the same way he beat everything, by fighting. Chris Todson is elated that he has been able to nab a terrific curb side parking spot, now that his grandfather's will has been probated. Todson got the handicap sticker. His excitement however is overshadowed by the building superintendent calling t

9. Rumours

Gardner/Ross' recent financial woes are starting to take their toll. Benny, using his lip reading ability finds out GR is planing on laying off employees. Grant enters the board room and asks if he is being let go, seeing as how he is the newest member of the firm. Sally tells him that in no uncertain terms his department is NOT being eliminated. This angers Grant, as he demands that he be entitled to equal consideration in the cutback process. He storms back into his ""office"" and programs his computer to lose as much money as possible. Unfortunately for him it backfires, and he makes more money than ever before. D'Arby begins working with a new client who wants to build a UFO sanctuary on his land near Toronto. Jack tells him to drop the deal, saying it can't make any money, but worried for his job and desperate for deals, he asks Monica for help. Monica and D'Arby concoct a scheme to turn the sanctuary into a theme park. Sally's deal with Roz Bitner for the Polar Pipeline take

10. The Enemy Within

Adam starts going' a little nuts as he tries to find the 'leak' within the firm. He begins taping all phone calls in and out of the firm, and he forces the traders to 'buddy up' to go through each others garbage in order to find the problem. He also tries to impose mandatory drug testing in an effort to find out which of his employees has a weakness that someone may have exploited. This of course is highly illegal, but Adam doesn't care. He announces, in order to catch a rat, you don't always need cheese. You just need to make them THINK you have cheese. A new client comes to Jack & D'Arby in order to takeover a large German multinational corporation (Oberhagen) that sells everything from mouthwash to fertilizer. (like Proctor & Gamble, that type of thing) The client however has far more righteous motives than money in this one. Oberhagen manufactured a catalytic agent in the 40s to help speed up the decomposition of the bodies of concentration camp victims. The client's paren

11. Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

It seems we've come full circle. The board is holding a meeting to discus a new takeover offer by a major Canadian bank. This time however, Sally agrees to the terms. Jack is furious and announces he will quit if the deal goes through. The Trading floor is also unhappy with the proposed buyout. Todson remarks that he'll be voting against the takeover, but that it will likely do no good. The bank wants Adam, or Jack to stay on after the buyout, but Adam wants to leave. The buyer tells Adam that either he stays, or Jack stays, they don't care who. A Vice President of a cosmetics company is attempting a hostile takeover of a company owned by her mother. As they reach the 9% limit of share ownership, they find someone ELSE has announced a takeover bid. Once again the possibility of a leak is brought up. In an effort to block the company from taking over before they do, Marty launches an offensive to buy the buyer. In a meeting between Adam and Ian Dantzer, He attempts to lure him

12. The Big Picture

Ian Dancer gives the executive committee some tough news. They need to clean up their image before they go public. Kathy promises to sue the firm for wrongful dismissal. Because Jack asked her to quit after the insider trading fiasco, she cannot collect unemployment. Jack refuses to write her a letter saying he fired her. If he does she can technically be arrested for insider trading, and the image of the firm will be badly hurt. Ian advises Jack to hire her back, knowing that any lawsuit would reveal the details of the insider trading, which could land all three of them in jail. Jack hires her back. Susannah cannot sign a lockup deal with Gardner/Ross for fear of losing custody of her daughter. She is charged with the task of finding her own replacement. She calls Monica back in to ask her to join, but she seems less than enthusiastic about it. At the GR party Ian finds out about the firm trying to nab Monica as the new head of their Research department. Monica finds out Ian'

13. The Enemy Without

Marty is enjoying his new position. As a publically traded company, he now has double the normal capital he used to have to invest. He uses his new power to inflate the share of a useless company, and makes a bundle at the same time. Cedric returns to the company, he now owns more than 10% of the company shares making him the second largest shareholder after Sally. Adam puts a motion on the table to put him on the Executive board, but she opposes it. Jack appoints D'Arby to keep his eye on Kathy, now that she's back at the firm, but his covert ops are anything but. During his snooping he accidentally finds a five year old file on a rubber recycling process. Five years ago, the process was unprofitable, the cost to produce virgin rubber was lower than the cost of recycling it. Now however, with a surge in prices, the process becomes once again, valuable. Kathy, realising she is being spied on, devises a plan to lure Jack into a trap by stealing a worthless file in plain view of D