His lawyer skillfully led him through his direct testimony: he had invested in Popflicks, but he hadn’t known that its CEO had a Facebook account, and he didn’t follow him on Facebook. He wasn’t even on Facebook. The CEO should make his disclosures via the security filings and not in social media forums. He’d been financially hurt because he hadn’t seen the CEO’s post on Facebook, and so he hadn’t sold his stock when others had.

It was Audrey’s turn to cross-examine Mr. Smith. She pushed back her chair; its scraping against the wood floors reverberated in the silent courtroom. Holding her legal pad, she walked to the front of the witness box. Her voice faltered as she asked her first question on cross, and Mr. Smith smirked. Mr. Smith answered her question, but in a tone that made it seem as if he had ended his sentence with the phrase ‘little girl.’

“You think of yourself as an experienced investor, don’t you?” she asked.

“Well, depends on how you define experience,” he said. He’d been coached well by his attorney: don’t admit to being experienced or you’ll be held to a higher standard. But she planned to prove that he was experienced, so maybe his attorney should have told him to admit it. His answer gave her the perfect opening for her line of questioning.

“Well, you seem like you’re your own man. You do a bit of your own research before you invest in a stock, right?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said cautiously, settling back in his chair.

“Please show Mr. Smith Exhibit A,” she said. A thick folder was passed to Mr. Smith. “This is your research file on JP Morgan, right?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And you made the decision to invest in that stock recently?”

“Yes, but this is JP Morgan. It has nothing to do with Popflicks,” he said, again in a condescending tone.

“Let’s look at Exhibit C—that’s from your research folder, isn’t it?” There was a shuffling of papers behind her as plaintiff’s counsel flipped through paper.

“Yes,” he said.

“The first document in the folder seems to be a printout from JP Morgan’s website with job listings, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Was it your own idea to check the JP Morgan job listings website?”

“Yes.”

“Because you wanted to see what type of skills JP Morgan was looking to hire?”

“Yes.”

“Because that told you something about JP Morgan’s future strategy?”

“Yes. I told you that in my deposition.”

“The job listing seeks quantitative analysts to create trading models to assist with proprietary trading on the stock exchange. They’re looking for candidates with PhDs in math or finance, right?”

“That’s what it says.” He leaned back and crossed his legs. “You can read it as well as I.”

“Is that your handwriting next to it?”

“Yes.”

“What does it say?”