A youngster who accompanied her mother to “Take Your Kids to Work” Day at St. Louis investment firm Merriman-Hodge inadvertently earned a $40 million profit for the company.
On April 28, acquisitions manager Norma Darden brought her three year-old daughter, Wanda, to the annual event where kids can witness their parents building consensus, deconstructing silos, and comparing apples to oranges and other fruit. When Norma was called into a sudden benchmarking session, Wanda waited in her mom’s office.
Sitting at her mom’s desk, and apparently just by punching random keys on the computer, the girl unknowingly purchased 40,000 shares of GlobalQ – which at 10 AM were selling at $9.48 per share. News of Global’s pending merger with Blumenthal TRM broke at 10:26, and by the time the market closed on Thursday, Global’s stock had jumped to $1,038. The $40 million profit marked the highest single-day earnings in the 25-year history of Merriman-Hodge.
Wanda was awarded a $50 gift card and St. Louis Cardinals ball cap for her efforts. As her mother was not directly involved in the transaction, she received no additional compensation.
Ironically, this was the second such occurrence at a Merriman-Hodge kids day event – though the outcome of the first was decidedly different. In 2015, an 11 year-old boy cost the firm $14 million in a similar keypunching incident.
Efforts to recover the loss continue today, with the firm currently focused on the boy’s band candy money.
