City boys reach Boiling point

The parallel most frequently drawn between the hyped-up atmosphere of the Boiler Room and Britain today was the internet, though the film never mentions it - an omission the City boys found odd.

How said: "The film fails to take advantage of the current climate in the market which is dotcom and communication stocks. In the past 18 months everyone has been hunting down coms and internet companies."

Marlowe said: "It's like the internet has opened this door and people subconsciously believe there is a possibility of becoming very rich very quickly."

Boiler Room concentrates instead on biotech stocks which, like internet shares, are about a dream; soaring share prices are based not on the value of today's business but tomorrow's possibilities. "It's this potential that is drawing so much money from investors because the hope is they could be getting a piece of this," says How.

Oliver Wheeler, a director of Freud Communications which advises internet companies like Oxygen and Toyzone, said the film's plot boiled down to a single strikingly relevant point.

"It's about a sales team that could sell anything from life assurance to kennels if the market was there for it. At the moment in Britain it's the inter-net stock because there is the subconscious belief by the public that internet stock can make you rich very quickly."

Ian Wayne, a market maker at a leading international investment bank in the City, agreed: "What we are seeing now is internet bulletin boards where unscrupulous individuals can try and mug other investors into buying stock that everyone else is getting out of. They are selling an idea to individuals and they are trying to puff other punters into buying that idea."

But, while our City swingers loved the film, especially the fast-paced dialogue and catch-phrases (like "Don't Pitch the Bitch" - don't try to sell to women), they pointed to crucial differences between Britain and the US that would make a scam on the scale of Boiler Room difficult to pull off.

For a start, we are a nation of cautious investors. We don't expect to make a quick million. Moreover, while the last great bull run of the Eighties harboured plenty of dubious if not downright illegal practices, the feeling among City folk is that the

British authorities have closed down the dodgy firms and tough-ened up rules governing traders.

"For me it was a hammed-up film. People who work in the industry will laugh at the inaccuracies," said Marlowe. "It's never going to happen here. I know how heavily regulated the Liffe floor is."

Even so, US boiler rooms are beginning to target British investors. Christopher Foster, director of property development company Wiggins, said: "I've never been cold-called by British stockbrokers but one of the things I have experienced is the American traders.

"They come through to reception and because I don't know who they are and they are calling from America I have to take the call. They are selling legitimate stocks from Wall Street but you just have to put the phone down."

You have been warned.