October 9, 2025 • 9 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Chris Markowski goes old-school, revisiting the founding philosophy behind Markowski Investments: help everyone. No minimums, no “exclusive” treatment, no private jets or art portfolio gimmicks—just honest, performance-driven wealth management for all. In an industry obsessed with glitz and status, Markowski proudly rejects the velvet rope mentality. He explains why real value isn’t found in perks or pretension, but in integrity, transparency, and results.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
Chris Markowski goes old-school, revisiting the founding philosophy behind Markowski Investments: help everyone. No minimums, no “exclusive” treatment, no private jets or art portfolio gimmicks—just honest, performance-driven wealth management for all. In an industry obsessed with glitz and status, Markowski proudly rejects the velvet rope mentality. He explains why real value isn’t found in perks or pretension, but in integrity, transparency, and results.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader, Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No bells, no whistles, no velvet rope, and this is
gonna go old school a little bit. I wrote a
column about this many many years ago, no velvet rope. Basically,
we hear at Markowski Investments. When we started started the firm,
we made a commitment to the general public that we
(00:37):
were going to help everyone. We were not going to say, okay,
we have an account minimum size, you have to have
over this amount of money or you can't work with us.
And goes actually goes back to when I first started
in the business, and you know, watching watching you know
(00:59):
a lot of smaller clients being handed off to call centers.
This is back in the nineteen nineties. They weren't worthy
to work with the top guys. I also used to
see this as well. I go to industry conferences and
they're talking about, you know, practice management, and you need
to fire all of your smaller clients and just focus
(01:20):
on the larger ones, and to me, one of the
more rewarding things for us at Markowski Investments. My brothers
and I'm my nephew, and it works for us at
Markowski Investments is building wealth easy, quite frankly easy to
maintain large portfolios. It's not a very difficult thing to do,
(01:45):
and quite frankly, most people are overcharged based upon the
service in my experience, but we help everyone out. As
far as bells and whistles are concerned. This is the
latest thing that that's happening right now. There is going
to be a massive amount of wealth transfer and this
(02:06):
includes very very wealthy people, ultra wealthy people. They're saying,
this is what the industry people is because I get
massive amounts email. Oh, well, you know you might want
to consider at Markowski Investments providing you know, private jet
service or this service or that service. And no, no,
(02:33):
I'm gonna be honest with everybody here. That's that's not
what I'm interested in. I've said this before. I'm not
in the the ass kissing business. That's not what we do.
We have this phrase kind of mind me. Well, it's
(02:53):
a long island thing is when you find somebody, you
find somebody good at what they can do. Let's say,
if you get a good sprinkler guy, irrigation guy, I
gotta get a pool guy. Uh you know, you get
a good guy that can, you know, clean out your
gutters obviously Long Island. See, I got a guy. You
know I need somebody to this, Well, I got a guy.
You know, somebody that can do that job. Well. We
(03:18):
like to be that guy when it comes to people's portfolios,
when it comes to their money. Again, we like to
pride ourselves on being families personal CFO. Example of this, Uh,
you know I have I have an orthopedic surgeon that
(03:39):
I've used, my kids have used. Am I looking for
my orthopedic surgeon to provide for me private jet travel
or all sorts of other nonsensical crap. No, No, there's
various different firms right now and it's becoming the new
(04:01):
popular gimmicks is art management in managing people's art portfolios
for super wealthy. No. No, I recognize that that entire
industry is a racket in of itself, and I don't
participate in rackets. I love art. I love art, but
(04:23):
I would only buy art if I like the art.
If I wanted to look at it. I'm looking to
buy art and order as a store of value or
anything like that. As a matter of fact, as people
were doing that not too long ago, of crushed right
now because the art market's been absolutely wrecked and destroyed.
(04:43):
But who cares. If you buy a painting, you want
it for your wall and you love it, that's what
you bought it for. Right. But again, it's a gimmick.
It's a gimmick, and to be honest with you, it impresses,
it impresses many people there, but those, quite frankly, are
(05:04):
not clients that we're really looking for. Have we lost
out on business because we don't provide bells and whistles? Yes,
And when asked about this, I would reply, that's good,
that's good, because then you know what, then it's not
(05:25):
a good mix. Okay, they're not for Markowski Investments. Markowski
and Investments is not for them. I'm not there. Like
I said, I'm not here to do this. I don't
have the time. We don't have the time to go out,
you know, four quarterly meetings a year, going out to dinners,
(05:47):
all this stuff. I'm not here to do that. Some
people want that they you know they need to have
their butt kissed. Well, you're not going to get it here.
We are going to provide you with the best possible
service at the best possible price, keeping your fees low.
One of the big firms out there dealing with a
(06:09):
lot of ultra wealthy people, now that they're also providing
access to private jets and all of these other things
for their clients. I'm like, Okay, I'm not getting involved
with that because I don't care. You know what you
say you have to charge for that. You're paying for
(06:31):
that in some way, shape, matter or form. And again,
for some people, they feel like that they have to
be a part of that club. They have to be
a part of that club. The more that they spend
sometimes the happier they are. I think I told this
story so I learned a long time ago. Is when
(06:51):
I was bartending in New York City, and well I
was on the Upper East Side, and let's just say,
you know, some of the client tele that we'd have
at a regular basis, they would just they were just
nasty to be nasty because they could they could, and
you know, we just kind of took it from time
(07:11):
to time and they'd be rude and whatever it may be,
and then arrogant coming in and you know, we all
knew who they were. And you know, one day that
one of these individuals see him walking up Second Avenue.
The restaurant I'm working at the may Or d season
was like, Chris, watch this. You know. We had this
house wine and most inexpensive stuff that we had was
(07:33):
actually not bad, but I mean it was not expensive. Again,
I'm dating myself. This is early, early, early, you know,
long time ago, thirty plus years ago. It's like, yeah,
tell him that this wine is great. We just got
it in and sell it to him for one hundred
and fifty dollars. Again, a long time ago. It's not
a lot of money nowadays for good bottle wine. But anyway,
neither here nor there. Oh yeah, guy bought it. Oh yeah,
(07:54):
he drank it, thought it was the greatest, greatest bottle
of wine he ever had. It was better to him
because he spent more money. Again, I want to be
judged based upon our performance, not based upon the bells
and whistles and chochkeys, because we're just not going to
provide them, just not going to do it. Not something
(08:17):
that we're interested in. Many people are. We do get
portfolios and that we look at from high, very high
net worth individuals, and we're blown away sometimes at the
fees that people are paying, the complete lack of attention
(08:39):
when it comes to perfection, nothing but SMAs in the accounts.
High fee products layered on top of other high fees,
And I'm like, did they confuse and bewilder you with
all of the chochkeys and dinners and golf fightings and
like golf club socks that they get handed you all
(09:01):
this other stuff that they hand you know, is that
really what's important? Or is performance important? Anyway? That's yeah,
that's who we are. Okay, no bells, no whistles, no
(09:22):
velvet rope. That's Markowski Investments watchdog on Wall street dot
com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast, explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader, Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
No bells, no whistles, no velvet rope, and this is
gonna go old school a little bit. I wrote a
column about this many many years ago, no velvet rope. Basically,
we hear at Markowski Investments. When we started started the firm,
we made a commitment to the general public that we
(00:37):
were going to help everyone. We were not going to say, okay,
we have an account minimum size, you have to have
over this amount of money or you can't work with us.
And goes actually goes back to when I first started
in the business, and you know, watching watching you know
(00:59):
a lot of smaller clients being handed off to call centers.
This is back in the nineteen nineties. They weren't worthy
to work with the top guys. I also used to
see this as well. I go to industry conferences and
they're talking about, you know, practice management, and you need
to fire all of your smaller clients and just focus
(01:20):
on the larger ones, and to me, one of the
more rewarding things for us at Markowski Investments. My brothers
and I'm my nephew, and it works for us at
Markowski Investments is building wealth easy, quite frankly easy to
maintain large portfolios. It's not a very difficult thing to do,
(01:45):
and quite frankly, most people are overcharged based upon the
service in my experience, but we help everyone out. As
far as bells and whistles are concerned. This is the
latest thing that that's happening right now. There is going
to be a massive amount of wealth transfer and this
(02:06):
includes very very wealthy people, ultra wealthy people. They're saying,
this is what the industry people is because I get
massive amounts email. Oh, well, you know you might want
to consider at Markowski Investments providing you know, private jet
service or this service or that service. And no, no,
(02:33):
I'm gonna be honest with everybody here. That's that's not
what I'm interested in. I've said this before. I'm not
in the the ass kissing business. That's not what we do.
We have this phrase kind of mind me. Well, it's
(02:53):
a long island thing is when you find somebody, you
find somebody good at what they can do. Let's say,
if you get a good sprinkler guy, irrigation guy, I
gotta get a pool guy. Uh you know, you get
a good guy that can, you know, clean out your
gutters obviously Long Island. See, I got a guy. You
know I need somebody to this, Well, I got a guy.
You know, somebody that can do that job. Well. We
(03:18):
like to be that guy when it comes to people's portfolios,
when it comes to their money. Again, we like to
pride ourselves on being families personal CFO. Example of this, Uh,
you know I have I have an orthopedic surgeon that
(03:39):
I've used, my kids have used. Am I looking for
my orthopedic surgeon to provide for me private jet travel
or all sorts of other nonsensical crap. No, No, there's
various different firms right now and it's becoming the new
(04:01):
popular gimmicks is art management in managing people's art portfolios
for super wealthy. No. No, I recognize that that entire
industry is a racket in of itself, and I don't
participate in rackets. I love art. I love art, but
(04:23):
I would only buy art if I like the art.
If I wanted to look at it. I'm looking to
buy art and order as a store of value or
anything like that. As a matter of fact, as people
were doing that not too long ago, of crushed right
now because the art market's been absolutely wrecked and destroyed.
(04:43):
But who cares. If you buy a painting, you want
it for your wall and you love it, that's what
you bought it for. Right. But again, it's a gimmick.
It's a gimmick, and to be honest with you, it impresses,
it impresses many people there, but those, quite frankly, are
(05:04):
not clients that we're really looking for. Have we lost
out on business because we don't provide bells and whistles? Yes,
And when asked about this, I would reply, that's good,
that's good, because then you know what, then it's not
(05:25):
a good mix. Okay, they're not for Markowski Investments. Markowski
and Investments is not for them. I'm not there. Like
I said, I'm not here to do this. I don't
have the time. We don't have the time to go out,
you know, four quarterly meetings a year, going out to dinners,
(05:47):
all this stuff. I'm not here to do that. Some
people want that they you know they need to have
their butt kissed. Well, you're not going to get it here.
We are going to provide you with the best possible
service at the best possible price, keeping your fees low.
One of the big firms out there dealing with a
(06:09):
lot of ultra wealthy people, now that they're also providing
access to private jets and all of these other things
for their clients. I'm like, Okay, I'm not getting involved
with that because I don't care. You know what you
say you have to charge for that. You're paying for
(06:31):
that in some way, shape, matter or form. And again,
for some people, they feel like that they have to
be a part of that club. They have to be
a part of that club. The more that they spend
sometimes the happier they are. I think I told this
story so I learned a long time ago. Is when
(06:51):
I was bartending in New York City, and well I
was on the Upper East Side, and let's just say,
you know, some of the client tele that we'd have
at a regular basis, they would just they were just
nasty to be nasty because they could they could, and
you know, we just kind of took it from time
(07:11):
to time and they'd be rude and whatever it may be,
and then arrogant coming in and you know, we all
knew who they were. And you know, one day that
one of these individuals see him walking up Second Avenue.
The restaurant I'm working at the may Or d season
was like, Chris, watch this. You know. We had this
house wine and most inexpensive stuff that we had was
(07:33):
actually not bad, but I mean it was not expensive. Again,
I'm dating myself. This is early, early, early, you know,
long time ago, thirty plus years ago. It's like, yeah,
tell him that this wine is great. We just got
it in and sell it to him for one hundred
and fifty dollars. Again, a long time ago. It's not
a lot of money nowadays for good bottle wine. But anyway,
neither here nor there. Oh yeah, guy bought it. Oh yeah,
(07:54):
he drank it, thought it was the greatest, greatest bottle
of wine he ever had. It was better to him
because he spent more money. Again, I want to be
judged based upon our performance, not based upon the bells
and whistles and chochkeys, because we're just not going to
provide them, just not going to do it. Not something
(08:17):
that we're interested in. Many people are. We do get
portfolios and that we look at from high, very high
net worth individuals, and we're blown away sometimes at the
fees that people are paying, the complete lack of attention
(08:39):
when it comes to perfection, nothing but SMAs in the accounts.
High fee products layered on top of other high fees,
And I'm like, did they confuse and bewilder you with
all of the chochkeys and dinners and golf fightings and
like golf club socks that they get handed you all
(09:01):
this other stuff that they hand you know, is that
really what's important? Or is performance important? Anyway? That's yeah,
that's who we are. Okay, no bells, no whistles, no
(09:22):
velvet rope. That's Markowski Investments watchdog on Wall street dot
com
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.