Traders (TV series)
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Traders is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on Global Television Network from 1995 to 2000.
Although Global had locked up most of NBC's "Must See Thursday" situation comedies for their Thursday night broadcasts, they lost the rights to broadcast the medical drama ER to rival CTV. Traders was broadcast against ER in the Thursday at 10 p.m. time slot. Many critics at the time believed the show would die an early death against the time slot competition, as ER had even beaten the other American networks in the time slot in a convincing manner. However, despite the stiff competition, Traders got good ratings in part thanks to its lead-ins.
The show was set in a Bay Street investment bank, Gardner Ross. Bruce Gray and Sonja Smits starred as the firm's head partners, Adam Cunningham and Sally Ross. The cast also included Patrick McKenna, David Cubitt, Rick Roberts, Chris Leavins, Gabriel Hogan, David Hewlett, Peter Stebbings and Alex Carter.
The show, although one of the most popular Canadian television series of its era, was expensive to produce. In the 1998-1999 season, Global entered a joint production arrangement with the CBC, and the series aired on both networks for several months. However, this arrangement didn't last into the show's next season.
Unlike many Canadian produced dramas which left their locale a question mark, Traders clearly takes place in Canada, and used Canadian locations, issues, celebrities and politicians as regular fixtures in the show.
Near the peak of its run Traders was frequently nominated in the Gemini Awards having garnered 28 nominations and 9 wins during the run of the series. Most notable of the Gemini wins is the two consecutive awards for Best Dramatic Series in 1998. Also in 1998 McKenna became the only actor in the history of the Gemini Awards to win for best actor in a drama series (for Traders) and best actor in a comedy (for The Red Green Show) in the same year.
Traders reruns currently air on Canadian digital television station, CBC Country Canada and the W Network.
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[edit] Characters
- Sally Ross (Sonja Smits) - A former economics professor and the only daughter of one of the "name" partners of the firm. She takes control of the firm when her father is arrested for embezzlement, loses control of the firm back to her father, and takes control again on her father's death.
- Jack Larkin (David Cubitt) - The firm's ambitious young investment banker and junior partner. Grew up as a juvenile delinquent with an abusive father. Got through college as a boxer. Became a trader in Vancouver before coming to Gardner Ross.
- Adam Cunningham (Bruce Gray) - The Machiavellian elder statesman of the bank, although a junior partner to the Rosses. Like Sally, from a rich family, but his fell on hard times when his father lost the family fortune. Less of a risk taker than Sally or Jack, and as a result often at odds with both of them. Was very much in love with his wife, who suffered from an unidentified illness that kept her in a wheelchair and almost blind, until her death.
- Marty Stephens (Patrick McKenna) - The driven head trader of Gardner Ross, making the firm money through risky short term trades. Derides the senior partners as "overheads" - a double insult based on the fact that their offices are on the floor above the trading floor, and they often eat up rent without bringing in any regular income. Although largely driven by money, has a soft spot for his wife and two children.
- Ann Krywarik (Kim Huffman) - The firm's female broker. Started her career by specializing in accounts held by elderly single men. Often Jack's paramour. Has worked as a broker, trader and mutual fund manager. Competent, but had to hide her heroin addiction. Alienated Marty by betraying and nearly bankrupting Jack.
- Donald D'Arby (Rick Roberts) - A young, smart, but shy investment banker. Usually works for Jack, although he did run a mutual fund for a time. From an extremely rich lumber family, but was disowned after helping Gardner Ross with an attempted hostile takeover of his family firm. Often acts as the firm's conscience.
- Grant Jansky (David Hewlett) - A brilliant but deeply disturbed derivatives trader. Appears to suffer from bipolar disorder, which is worsened by the caffeine in the chocolate he craves. Has extreme difficulty with any social situation, and as a result tries to keep to himself, although he is close to Donald and Jack. Deeply in love with Ann and often resents the way Jack treats her.
- Chris Todson (Chris Leavins) - The firm's humourless head currency trader. Obsessed with military history. Raised on a farm in a pre-industrial religion (most likely Mennonites, but this is never expressly stated), but is now alienated from his family who disowned him after he had an affair with a married older woman. Although he is incredibly materialistic, he often wishes he could return to the society that raised him.
- Ian Farnham (Gabriel Hogan) - Handsome young investment banker, hired by Gardner Ross as a favour to his mother in order to grease the wheels of a pending deal, although he was unaware of this fact. Had early success founding a mutual fund, but his inattention to later business nearly cost him his job. Had an affair with Sally.
- Benny Siedleman (Ron Gabriel) - The firm's primary bond trader, and the oldest man on the trading floor. Was Marty's first boss. Eventually left the firm to marry Jack's sister Cathy.
- Ziggy McLeod (Angela Vint) - Started as the firm's receptionist, but later started working on the trading floor as a trainee. Despite her studies and enthusiasm, she never gained Marty's confidence. Was Donald's girlfriend until he left the firm.
- Niko Bach (Rachael Crawford) - Beautiful, exotic and brilliant trader. The only trader Marty felt confident could follow him as head trader. However, her personal life usually impinged on her professional life despite her attempts to segregate the two. Had a short love affair with Chris.
- Cedric Ross (David Gardner) - The "Ross" in Gardner Ross and Sally's father. Sally eventually found out that he was deeply involved in several illegal financial transactions, and attempted to keep him out of the firm. Although he regained control, his double life led to his murder shortly thereafter, and Sally once again became the senior partner.
- Paul Deeds (Peter Stebbings) - A young, talented, brilliant, but unprincipled investment banker. Stole research material from a dead investment banker's briefcase on one occasion, and slept with a male client to close a deal in another case.
[edit] Story Arc
The entire series encompasses a large story arc, with several characters disappearing, and some reappearing, throughout the series. As such, like other series with a consistent story arc, it is often best to watch the episodes in order as plot points often cover several episodes and very few episodes stand entirely on their own.
[edit] Basic Story Line
Gardner Ross is a small Canadian investment bank that is somewhat profitable, but often faces a takeover by a larger institution due to its inability to compete in a global marketplace. Crisis strikes when senior partner Cedric Ross is jailed after money goes missing from an initial public offering. Fearing that his partner Adam Cunningham will take advantage of his absence to agree to a friendly takeover by a larger bank, he calls on his only child Sally to take care of his interests in his absence. Meanwhile, hotshot trader Jack Larkin is looking to break into investment banking and approaches Adam, who agrees to allow Larkin to join the firm if he can land another IPO. Jack undercuts a rival bank and gets the IPO, but as the investment syndicate falls through, Gardner Ross finds itself responsible for most of the underwriting of the issue, and if the sale goes poorly, faces the loss of all of its investment capital. Luckily, head trader Marty Stephens saves the day making a large profit for the bank selling the issue into a cool market.
The three major players each have different agendas. Sally wishes to both keep the bank independent and to solidify her control of the bank despite her lack of experience. Adam wants to steer a safe course that will bring consistent but relatively low returns on capital. Jack seeks outgrowth at any cost seeking bigger and bigger deals, culminating in a $1 billion financing of a harbour project. This infuriates Marty who sees the plans of the investment bankers stealing capital away from his consistently profitable trading while putting him under pressure to bring more capital into the bank.
Meanwhile, the charges against Cedric are dropped on a technicality. However, Sally discovers that he did take an illegal commission on the IPO, and refuses to give up her control of the shares. Sally makes a misstep by bragging about the harbour project, nearly defaulting on a progress advance in the process - she has to be bailed out by a much larger bank, making the original deal totally unprofitable. The larger bank gets a share of Gardner Ross in the process, threatening Jack's expansion plans. Sally decides to take the company public to raise capital to pay off the larger bank, but with Adam's help this results in Cedric being able to buy enough shares to re-take control of Gardner Ross and force Sally out for ordering Marty to keep buying Gardner Ross stock in a futile attempt to stop him, technically violating capital requirements.
However, Cedric is soon murdered and his stock goes back to Sally. Adam is caught up in his own betrayal, but Sally keeps him on because his dismissal would end the firm's credibility on the street. Adam and Jack buy back in as partners. However, Jack is betrayed by Ann on a software investment and goes bankrupt when his shares in Gardner Ross don't cover the amount he borrowed to buy them. He unwisely assaults another banker and is suspended as a result.
Although Ann leaves the firm, she is soon wooed back by Adam to run the mutual fund being set up by the firm. Marty wants nothing to do with her although to get him to agree to sell a very poor bond issue (and ruin his reputation in the process), he is given managerial control of the firm. Marty fears another betrayal and the effect the mutual fund will have on the trading floor.
Jack soon recovers as he is reinstated and an investment in a diamond mine pays off huge dividends. However, the success is short lived after the tests turn out to be fraudulent. Benny loses his life savings as a result and gives up trading to marry Jack's sister Cathy. Sally pursues a relationship with a smitten billionaire, Phil Hogland, but cuts it off when she realizes he suffers from bipolar disorder and won't take medication to control it. Hogland first tries to use his influence to destroy Gardner Ross, but when the firm gets in trouble again, he instead agrees to act as a white knight and save the firm at the expense of Sally leaving the firm. He brings Niko and Paul to the bank to look out for his interests.
Jack plans a new life himself with Ann, but Ann is murdered by a security company who is dependent on an unknowing Jack to launder their illegally obtained money. Jack finds out about the scheme and runs off with the money. Sally and Grant manage to freeze Jack's assets, but they only manage to enrage the security company when an attempted sting operation on Jack to get their money back can't be carried out because he has lost the funds. Jack is killed as a result. However, Sally uses his money to re-take control of the bank by buying Hogland's shares.
The bank is once again thrown into crisis when Sally is diagnosed with cancer and has to undergo surgery and chemotherapy to keep it under control. As usual, she has to compete with Adam for managerial control and ownership of the bank during this time. After this major crisis, most of the rest of the series concentrates on the relationship between the character's personal lives and their work at the bank.
[edit] Themes
Several themes are repeated during the course of the series.
[edit] David v. Goliath
Throughout the series, Gardner Ross is constantly comparing themselves to their larger competition. The investment bankers often trade blows with the much larger (if fictional) Canadian Corporate Bank (most likely based on one of Canada's Big Five). The trading floor's key competition is Federated Dundas, a brokerage firm with ten times the staff and capital, and the home of Marty's arch-nemesis "McGrath" (played in a memorable cameo by Joe Flaherty, although otherwise unseen during the series). Even Canada's status with respect to the much larger economy of the United States is examined, with Sally eventually partnering with both a U.S. venture capital fund with twice her working capital and the entrepreneurial Texan who runs it.
[edit] Family
All of the characters have varying family troubles. Ironically, Marty has the most stable "nuclear" family with a wife and children, but even his relationship is rocky. On the other extreme, Ann is so disconnected from a family life that she listed Gardner Ross as her person to contact in case of an emergency. A few characters suffer the loss of a close family member during the series. Chris is alienated from his family, despite the efforts of a family friend to mend the relationship with his father, but he never manages it. Donald, similarly disowned, does manage to build bridges with his parents. Niko perhaps has the worst relationship history, cutting herself off from her own son in order to further her career, only to find herself caring for the child when her ex-husband is arrested.
However, obligations to family often prove problematic. Feeling guilty about abandoning his sister to their abusive father, Jack got his sister Cathy a job at the firm, and on her first day of work she engaged in an incident of insider trading. Similarly, fearing that his talented son would drop out of high school, Marty called in all his favours in order to prevent his son from getting a job on a trading floor.
[edit] Business Ethics
The characters often grapple with ethical issues, and even Adam raises these issues on occasion. For example, to increase its cash flow, Gardner Ross attempts a takeover of a cigarette company that is actually trying to get out of the tobacco business. Marty is constantly "walking the line" on ethical issues, taking advantage of information that doesn't quite meet the criteria for insider trading on a near daily basis. Although he knows the rules, he consistently breaks the spirit of the law, and occasionally steps over the line. For example, when he took a short position on a stock that was put on the restricted list when Gardner Ross announced a takeover attempt, he covered the short in order to save the firm millions at the expense of its client.
[edit] Reputation
Gardner Ross is constantly trying to balance appearances with reality. For example, Adam is known as "The Most Trusted Man on Bay Street", although he consistently tries to take advantage of Sally. Despite this, rumours swirl around him, one about his wife's death (an assisted suicide) just out of the range of hearing. Conversely, Jack does not mind putting the firm in a position where the rest of Bay Street is "out to get him" - Jack openly steps on the toes of larger rivals in order to get deals. Marty too understands the importance of reputation - on one occasion after being suspended, he comes back to find that no-one will execute a trade with him, leaving him at the end of the day begging an old friend to execute any trade with him whatsoever.
[edit] DVD Release
Season 1 of the series has been released on November 25, 2003 by Universal Studios.
