Floored

Video Transcription:

  Floored

I remember they were throwing paper in the air narcissus mayhem I looked at him I said well what's what's going on if you wanna know if this is where they work this is what they do this is what happens every day I was just like thrilled I was like this is something I'd never seen before you know eyes got wide I was I everybody looked like they were in a riot but there was some kind of border to it and I just had to be part of it from that moment I went literally back to my workplace and gave two weeks notice without having a contact without knowing how I was gonna get on the floor I just knew this was where I needed to be I needed to be on the floor [Music] [Music] the biggest pits in the world are here in Chicago Chicago mercantil the Board of Trade board option exchange even the Chicago Stock Exchange there's no place else that you have 9000 bit traders all in one city nowhere else in world this is the bastion of capitalism player of railroads of the nation stacker of wheat hog butcher to the world that's what we do here you know if Chicago's known for anything else let it be let it be the trading capital of the world this is little sale Boulevard all the way down summertime it's absolutely beautiful all the trees full up this is where trading started why do we have so many traders here I think it really is an entrepreneurial spirit and it's a very competitive environment I know the guys on the trading desks in New York are also very competitive but it's not physical Chicago its physical it was based on gentlemen's rules was based on integrity honesty mutual respect but the business in the pit was the furthest thing from gentlemen's rules I mean you saw the worst and everyone when you're staying there it's somebody spits on your face that you know somebody could inadvertently stabbed in the pan or he steps on your foot or spits on you like I said it's like something that you don't even really address it's like completely you're immune to it it's like it's silent it's quiet in in the chaos [Music] the physicality in the pit was ridiculous we got to the point where at times the pit was so physical that before the start of the opening bell we could pick our feet up off the ground in that fall [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the open outcry process is you know 80% bravery I mean it's it's a perspiration game you have to have you have to have nerve some are brilliant some are totally eccentric some are totally nerdy some are just flagrant jerks at the Board of Trade the interview process that I had to become a member and I remember the one question they asked me what do you want to do and I said I want to make a lot of money and leave but you never found an ad in the paper you know it was all people who trusted you found a friend of the family got you on there because you were sharp or you had potential I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago my older brothers four years older than me well he'd already been trading maybe for about a year or so and he thought I'd be really interested in it I played sports in college and my brothers said that trading in general is kind of like sports you know and when the bell goes off boom like throwing a touchdown pass in Michigan Stadium with a hundred thousand people with the cheering just that adrenaline rush I mean it's insane it's not a normal job I mean it's not a normal job where you're not getting a salary every two weeks you don't have this health plan you don't have your 401k you mean you have to do it yourself when you've had a taste of the money you don't want to go back to be in the corporate world I mean it I just couldn't see myself working for a firm and just getting reamed on by a boss probably I seriously I'd probably tackle em or something yeah I'd be like you know who are you this is Creedence Clearwater Revival that's my anchor name this is my brother's first album the endless army and I got it for you know colorful reasons you got your little groups you got your South siders you got your North siders she got the Jewish clique you got the Irish clique you got the Italian clique I'm polish I don't think we have a collector you got a mesh and find your niche there's a lot of uneducated people which doesn't matter you know the uneducated people have a tendency to make good money when you're there from 8:30 3:15 got all about money one guy's miseries one guys you know profit sad to say but that's true not that I take advantage of those but maybe I would by the middle of the 19th century Chicago was emerging as the transportation hub of America trade routes by rail and water converged on the city giving birth to its famous stockyards and slaughterhouses and a town hall market that would later become known as the world's first modern futures exchange on April 3rd 1848 83 merchants founded the Chicago Board of Trade Futures Trading provided an opportunity for buyers the sellers to manage their risk against unpredictable price fluctuations too many cattle this year now the beef prices are low drought in the Midwest the corn prices go higher if both the buyer and the seller can agree on a price ahead of time we call this a futures contract this agreement allows them the opportunity to protect themselves against paying too much or selling for too little so who are all these guys yelling and screaming and what are they doing as the exchange grew in popularity at times there'd be more sellers than buyers or a demand with no one there to meet it entrepreneur saw an opportunity to take advantage of this imbalance working in the middle as both buyer and seller this allowed them to profit by speculating with their own money while filling a vital need for market liquidity or the ease with which goods can be bought or sold in the marketplace these early speculators became known as local traders as their role expanded over time they became major players on the trading floor in 1981 the Chicago exchanges introduced metal's energy currencies bonds and stock indexes attracting more interest than ever before soon calls were coming in from all over the world the modern local trader might trade hundreds if not thousands of contracts in a single day often getting in and out of trades and seconds each time risking their own money in the hopes of profiting as they hold their own against the expanding market [Music] [Applause] thirty odd to 30 odd - it was a live auction where the price of the commodity that you were trading was determined by who would pay the highest and who would sell it at the lowest price when I would pay five and someone else would be willing to sell it at five we would have a match we would acknowledge it check it in the pit by saying you know I bought so many contracts from you at this price and then we'd write it on our cards we'd end up handing in our cards to our clerks and the clerk's would take it to our Clearing House yellow coats were designated for clerks other than that all the different colors and different designs that you see down there was to make you stand out among the crowd there were guys that had checkered jacket red white and blue jackets anything that made you stand out in your area the pit because you needed to be seen some misunderstanding the traders manipulate the price that they're responsible for prices going up or down and it's completely false the supply and demand drives that if there's too little supply and demand is high well prices are going up if there's too much supply and demand is flat prices are going down the traders are just in the middle all they're doing is catching something for a tenth of a penny and passing it on hundreds or thousands of times a day it's actually funny cuz when you first come down here it's overwhelming we can't figure anything out and quickly you kind of discover that guy's a broker and he's an order filler and well he's a big trader all of a sudden people take on this personality so you get an idea of what's happening well then you get some confidence and some you know arrogance and you said that you're gonna do this because you've been practicing and you think you can do it well that's really when the learning starts because that's when you realize how incredibly complex and oftentimes scary and difficult and and hard it is these guys are professionals everyone each and every day to go in their trade your own rent money not know whether you're gonna make money or not is terrifying to a lot of people and I found it to be very very scary and I don't have any clients how many customers in it and it dawns on you nobody trusts you to do what you do except your family and so in a lot of ways I'm a hedge fund manager of my own family's worth money and they trust me not to find out the nature of Trading's buying for one price and trying to sell it at a better price period you get in there yeah make your first trade you know if you get whacked ten times in a row you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and do it again we started at 7:20 by 7:30 with dripping wet of sweat fortunes had been made and lost in the first 10 minutes everybody had their ups and downs I had bigger swings due to the size I traded it really depends on how much you put on a 5 tick day a 5 tick day a 5 move from 1 to 6 you can make millions of dollars in depending how much you put on 100 lot if you put a hundred a lot on in the euro dollars it's worth $2,500 ok there are guys that have 2,000 Lots on so yeah you're talking about 200 thousand dollars a move one tick so it moves 5 ticks you're up a million dollars that goes 5 ticks against you you're down a million dollars if you traded a few contracts at a time your risk was limited if you went and took on the market and bought everything available your risk was enormous there were traders that went into the pit every day and risked the house you know it wasn't unusual for guys to be making 20 30 grand a day wasn't unusual for them to be losing and twenty fifty thousand a day and a lot of times you did that on one trade whether people like to admit it or not this is a form of gambling how is it not if you buy a stock you're buying the idea that that stocks going up right I mean that's that's what we do and options are the same way I mean there is a gambling mentality to what we do down there it's gambling to go down there every day because you are risking something but the rewards were phenomenal if you took the biggest risk you're either gonna get crushed or you're gonna be the happiest man on campus this afternoon I think somebody once said that floor trading offered blue-collar guys a chance to get in with the big boys clowny trading only has two purposes one to make a lot of money two to manage a lot of money and the faster you make big money the faster you can do things with your life and I think that's what it's allowed me to do the numbers for successful guys are fleeting because you're only as good as your last trade it's what you don't lose it really is I mean there's been guys who've made more money than me but for some reason or another they they've it was taken away and so I think the more successful trader is a guy who can keep it for you know to the 10th to the ninth race the good traders know when to make money and leave I tell you I I went to work every day and when I wasn't at work I was a miserable human being I mean without a doubt I wanted to be back at work because I know how much money you could make and so when I go away in vacation I didn't matter what I spent cuz I knew I was losing more not being at work you know and then somebody said but you could be losing money and I go you know you never think of that way everything can be traced to being around the best traders in the free world I would watch these guys trade my pit and I would say if they're buying I'm buying that they're selling I'm something I also wanted to see was importantly how they handle a loser it's not what you make its what you don't lose that determines how much money you have the end of the year I would watch these bigger traders and I go how are they handled the stress of having a losing trade what are they doing how to listen to him I literally just learned by watching the most successful people in the world certainly the numbers that come out of these places how much money people make can be staggering yeah my assistant who is pretty junior she makes a little bit more than my brother does my brother's a cardiac anesthesiologist my assistance is three years out of college it likes to drink beer yet a bunch of young kids making more money than they knew what to do with I mean they found things to do with it you know I mean anything that you can think of that you could abuse yourself with that was part of the lifestyle there were five guys that rented a bus to take them to Michigan golfing they hired a couple girls to go on the bus with them and by the time they get wait it wasn't me by the I want that outfit [Music] my primary over-the-counter customer base was made up of traders they're fun guys they're just fun to be around and they're also they're nuts they're crazy I had a customer who I rang him up and it was 172 dollars he said what kind of number is that 172 dollars make it 100 or 200 1 or 2 1 or 2 I said well which should I make it he said I don't know let's flip the coin so I flipped the coin he called it he lost $200 we did this every time he came in for three years he never won we had customers flipping coins he wanted to inspect coins he never won every time it was like two or three I just say what do you want to make the spread he would do that he never wanted every time he would overpay he'd take the money out of his pocket slam it on the counter and leave loved the game loved the game Joey called me and said he wanted me to deliver some cigars over the pit and that he'd meet me there and he told me to bring a hundred and so I went over there and he met me and brought me onto the floor and I knew a lot of the guys cuz I was doing business with him some guys across the pit we're like going like this to me and so joe said they want you they want a cigar throw a cigar to him so I reach in the box and I throw a cigar across the event and the guys are reaching up and grabbing my cigars so I threw him everywhere it was just throwing cigars all the way across the pit whoever it is that's responsible for security in the pit or whatever it is came up to me and as he approached me said I'm the guy who's supposed to throw you out of here you know every afternoon the bond closed we would all prepare for it it's like okay you know bond close is hitting when you watch those guys coming off the floor I mean you can see their moods you could tell good days bad days you know like life-changing days we saw those days but it was it was palpable I mean it wasn't this was not like you know five o'clock and everybody punches out and walks out of the office every time you make money trading it's like applause but only you here because everybody else in that pit is rooting against you you're competing next to folks for every single trade and the fastest person who ever says buy them whoever says that first gets the trade and you know your neighbors sitting him right here next to you needs them as bad as you need him he needs to make his mortgage payment he needs to put the kids through school but you're gonna bury him you'll tear out his liver because you heard that broker say sold and and that guy is right there next to you he needs him and you just said by him and he said how many did I get and you're like not good friend of mine said long ago he said if you want a friend get a dog you don't have friends in the pit most of the people could set aside their differences outside of business but sometimes when the almighty dollar gets involved people don't care I've seen guys yell and scream it and say nasty things ungodly things that's what helps them trade yeah they probably don't like you anyway true that's true they probably truly don't like you there's no doubt about that you know if they had a chance to they they would hit you if they could there will be fights in the pits you know no one's proud of that but you will see people go at it there was a lot of fighting over who did the trade did you do it or did the guy next to you trade with me one guy thought that he made the market someone took his trade finally the guy lost his cool ran over and bit the guy in the nose I was just under six foot three and weighed 255 pounds and I had little guys that would come up and berate me guys would literally look at you and say you're a [ __ ] idiot I can't believe you do that [ __ ] trade you'd look at him and go you've got to be kidding me first of all it was a good trade that's why you're mad and and second of all shut up and I think the guys that want to strangle you if every trade you kind of enjoy that and you want to do that again and again because that means you're doing something right that was the famous line on Chicago is you want to meet out by the horse because we have this great big horse statue that sits out front and that's where everybody would if they would actually go down they would have a group of hundreds following them I look at him he looks at me goes yeah let's go [ __ ] outside we walking out and while the [ __ ] turns around and cracks me right in the [ __ ] face hard I go a real [ __ ] fight Hoss you swing at me again and I ducked and his hand goes through the [ __ ] window and the blood is spurting out like a like a geyser he goes Mike take me to the hospital and look at my goal I think it's [ __ ] me a lot of us have come from no education backgrounds really other than high school you know we all started trading young nobody knew anything I made like two and a half million dollars and five days of trading it's a pure business in theory but you know when there's so much money and things like that laying around you know you actually see what somebody's really like is it going there and try to be somewhat pure and that's why I think I am a pure trader but I love the trading but I hate the people these are fun this thing's on rollers so you know you're twisted when you do [ __ ] like this you got problems you're so big you can't believe it t come up to him see how big an animal is you know they think oh it's a giraffe things are everything's dangerous in Africa everything because everything is used to being eaten when I go there there's always stories of somebody dying or getting murdered by some animal all the time see they give you a list they call it a menu it's got animals on it and next with their price tags so you look at something like when you go out you say okay there's two grand there's a thousand as you shoot something like we sculpt our rifles in on we have boons because they're only 50 bucks lion hunting was a ripoff it's like the [ __ ] they let the thing out of the [ __ ] cage and I shot it that's the feeling I had yeah it wasn't right well the Rhino was the complete opposite I always said it was less time I was happy when I got charged by that Rhino it's just not any fun unless you can die but you need to you need to have a cure for those big animals Wesley Richards Oh fun the beauty of hunting is it does involve the Merc does it involve my partners it's just me and something that wants to get away from me in this business you have to be a street kid and a business person because there's too much money involved 25 years of trading it is really a living hell if you're not one of them and I've never been one of them it's a whole power of 150 years of futures industry in Chicago which were it started it has always been the broker the brokers one has the orders that come in from all outside customers if you're in with that guy you can count on making a living every day your life it's a game you know it's who you know we grew up with who you married who's your friend all that [ __ ] would have been way more successful way more I couldn't tell you if I could bite my tongue and learn to play the game a little bit like dressed like this every day when I'm in my twenties I was a fucked-up little off the beauty of trading when it's really going it's a rhythm you're just doing your thing problem is when it slows down sometimes we start thinking thinking why I should do this trade why I should buy these why should solve it anytime anybody thinks I'm usually pretty [ __ ] I call a market a big for market is a horror it's out the [ __ ] as many people as a can that's its job it may not go against you fast at first so you'll take a you know a little heat you know because it'll go against you a little bit and then all of a sudden it goes a little more and a little more and you kind of get like you know it feels like a hypnotism sort of thing where you get caught in this downward spiral you know it's a loser you've confirmed that it's a loser just sitting everything the prices go further and further against you in it and it just feels almost like sometimes you can't get out and say you're down like twelve thousand dollars you're like I should walk out of here I should realize you know I'm past my limit and walk out of here what's the next thing you do you're like well what the hell just you know I'll buy a couple more and then WHAM it goes again I'm the other thing that goes through your head is like all right how much I'm gonna lose it right now there goes a car there goes a house it's like someone hit you in the balls never-ending it's like wham wham it's like okay nobody can get you down the amount of money that you're gonna be down a day only you can do that and it's funny when you see something happen to somebody else it's very very public and so those guys that saw you lose money will probably you know twist that knife in your side and say boy they look pretty good an hour ago didn't they peek that's a vindictive crowd it really is there's a joke that we always used to say when you go on the floor you've got the the Scan card you got a scan your way in well you scan it and you look down in the lights read if the guy behind you is like ooh bad day yesterday or are you looking there you like oh no it's good you're like God come on then it goes green you like Oh Rocky yes it's alive for another day there were a lot of times when the markets got very volatile that you wouldn't see a guy the next day and you knew he lost what he could lose Valentine's Day 1994 I had a little position on in the yawn the Japanese and the Americans were trying to make a trade deal and they kept extending the deadline and finally they said there's not gonna be a deal so when we walked in on that Monday our market was limit up so that position immediately was like 40,000 against me and it was rallying that's $1,000 a point so every time it rallied one point higher I lost another thousand dollars well the rallied 100 points it was 150 thousand dollars it was pretty crushing you know the feeling of despair where oh my god I've lost everything we had basically moved back in with my parents ready T number one I think we should walk over this way so I went out and got a job as a clerk making you know four hundred dollars a week at one point my wife was drunk and you know she said yeah you're nothing but a [ __ ] Clark I think she really expected bigger and better things okay I'll play that one what's really nice is when the weather's a little warmer but it's too cold for everybody else you get the whole course to yourself when the split came it was pretty devastating for me I hugged my kids that kind of kept me going that was like well I can't just give up now because uh they're depending on me all I know is that when I was a little kid I just I wanted to be a dad from earliest childhood you know I had a lot of brothers and I just I want it to be a father you know how to use that okay well you just go to the bank and put it in punching that number when it asks it's gonna ask you what what you want to do you want to checking withdrawal and then punch in the number how much okay when you put the card in you just you put the card in and you take it out you know just leave it it I guess with the card no get cash and pay cash all right when I was in preschool yeah he came in and spoke to our class I remember and he just had everyone stand up and yell as loud as they could and that that was basically what I figured he did all day I didn't really know it's rough our markets a real thin and it was just a tough week by the end of the week I was asking people everyone it's just like it's brutal it's brutal I'm on with three brokers so I have one broker on my right one on my left and I'm on the headset with the third broker sometimes I have to flip the headset hey you know can you hang on a second I'm getting my [ __ ] ripped open right here I'll get right back to you as soon as I get you know it's like that the lottery is like three hundred and twenty million dollars right now so I bought a ticket for that when I played lottery before when I was married before I always would buy the ticket thinking you know I really hope that I don't win because I felt like it would change my life I just felt like it would change my life to where I wouldn't be happy well I'll take the chance now and you will have a big loss and it's how fast did you cut your losses when you started to incur those big losses and then hopefully you didn't have something like a drug addiction and alcohol addiction which brake traders down and there was an incident where somebody had dropped drugs yet nobody and everybody's looking at it and nobody would pick it up because nobody wanted to you know be incriminating by what was going on sorry but he's sitting there looking at the drugs nobody would pick it up and drugs and alcohol is that you know is a horrible stereotype of this business I think that the high-strung type a people you know gravitate towards that whether it's this industry or a sports industry or the film industry or you know insurance it doesn't matter I mean those people I think that's a that's a functionality of the personality not necessary the industry you know they hate me it's the Merck battlin house I knows when I first walk in every [ __ ] has a Rolex under her hand and it's something I'm like look at this I could think about when I first started trading everybody's got more than a wrist then I got my accounts I thought it was just like you know what I could beat these guys that's where dad did 99% still don't get it when you win you start betting less fat more I mean there's one role that you can make the hundred thousand dollars I let it right if you rode three sixes in a row right and the winners right money gets the super chance I'm talking I thought the Playmate isn't that what every guy's [ __ ] okay I think about trainings just don't lose money when you lose money changes everything you can't keep going and losing money and expect to live the same life somehow god I somehow some spiritual things as for watching I you want to buy something expensive because you made it he made it up for minor buyer he's starting to easing every day you buy a house can't make any money you got expensive vacation hey Suze you say you're over the hump I didn't have to make money every day I remember seeing two or three grown men on the steps of the pen at the end of a crazy day in October of 87 crying I mean that leaves a heck of an impression these were the men that you know they they could do no wrong they had they were there first then there were some of the pioneers they had built huge fortunes and they were just the wrong way on a day where it mowed them down because of what can happen and how much money they can lose in a rapid pace the stress level was too much for some of the guys who actually took their own lives and these guys were married with kids so you're talking about enormous amounts of stress and they just couldn't look their wife in the eyes anymore or their children and it's pretty brutal really brew a couple months ago I told myself I'm leave on the floor I definitely want to leave the floor my overhead is insane my gross profit was really it was always growing and then just over the past year last year for example over less than half of what I made the year before eight-30 opens like the SAC exchange everything I'll cash opens at 8:30 the trade was at 7:30 because the unemployment number camera at 7:30 and so I missed that move which if I was on the computer I would have had a chance of trading the number and probably been done at 8 o'clock instead you know I gotta stick around and wait for a move later in the day hopefully we're obviously going computer whether it's you know tomorrow or a couple months from now I don't know you could just tell by my co2 it's it's faded just like the floor there isn't this floor trader presence like there like there was it used to be that there was a couple thousand guys I don't know the numbers that were trading in the pits we had as much as five hundred people in the pit when I was there in the 80s now there may be 50 guys in the pit a lot of the business has gone to electronic trading the internet became very commonplace in the nineties and the speed at which the information was learned by all players in the marketplace became so fast and everyone got all the information at the same time the trading industry started to go with the information industry and went side by side with it they wanted to be able to trade instantly when the news came out and as I've leveled the playing field the people in the pits have lost a lot of their advantage the computer brings in so much girth that there is no need for individuals to bring liquidity anymore in the old days it would trade five six seven eight nine ten a lot of trading would take place between five and ten nowadays a market instantaneously changes price from five to ten and there's nothing in the middle and as the markets have gotten more sophisticated the customers know where things should trade the traders in the pit that just bought and sold in a short term by here looking to sell it in the next few seconds at a better price those people the opportunities aren't there like they used to be in the pits you could see it in the Nasdaq the volume started drift away from the pit there would be less valuable and I would spending more in Commission trading with the box as I call the box the computer file the most vile invention it is just a disgusting thing in the 70s I was on Wall Street I was at the Disco's late night having fun and that was a trader and it was immediate gratification because you come in in the morning you'd have money in your account the next thing you know geez I just made $1,000 let's go out now we were sky-high for twenty years should have retired but I did I grew up in the late fifties early sixties so I didn't learn computer games I don't have that ability I'm 51 years old and it's killing me typical weekend I get done with work on Friday I come home and relax my kids get out of school I'll give you guys a little squirt over here makes you begin to question can I still trade am i a traitor nobody's bulletproof it's one of my favorite shirts the last five years have been very hard we certainly don't mention finances in front of the children you tighten up the belt strings so we just we look we like to sale rack we like the values the pits are what made Chicago a banking center it is a travesty that they are hell-bent on going computerized when the system works as it is they just want to get rid of it and forget about it have to wait another year till them one of these guys gets marked down until the clearance and it would have been the best power washer ever but patience is a virtue the computers really changed the dynamics you don't need market makers anymore yes they're in the pit but they're not necessarily making a living the same way they did maybe seven or eight years gone definitely not the same living they made you know 20 years ago okay what do we see here see here here's the depressing part of a computer they are the thinnest through the thin in terms of people trillions of dollars change hands every day on the online platform and Globex big numbers but the pits know why because there's huge bids or use offers there's no space in between them easy for the computers to match up well there's a bit of three and an offer of four and it's 20 zillion up we really don't need a lot of human outcry to add liquidity which is what humans do best gotta realize ninety-five percent now of all global markets are electronic I don't think you can find any pits overseas the grains coffee cocoa sugar the softs everything switched over to electronic you'll have algorithms it says I want to buy them at this level sell them at this level if I'm taking a profit I want it to be this much if I'm taking a loss I want it to be this much and then the computers will just run pumping in bids and offers all day against other computers now what you have is only program traders these people if you don't write a program and you don't have it set to kick in at different intervals you can't trade it I have not figured it out consequently I've gone into the cattle pen two years I've been standing in the caterpillar we still have paper they're trying to infect us with the virus the customers however like talking to their brokers and it's the last of the open outcry I think one of the biggest reasons some of those Cowboys made so much money was that they were excellent at reading people stepping out the clues of the brokers faces you're listening to the bond you'll be hearing the noise you can determine the fear level in the marketplace but when it changes to the screen you just see prices you see numbers flashing back and forth this is the life and the times of an upstairs trader you have to understand that I was in this incredibly stimulating environment of being on the trading floors for a number of years I think there were four women on the entire exchange floor you know and it's like you're you're down there sink or swim you know you're in there with a pit of guys you know old sweaty armpits and everything and I'm just trying to open my mouth to buy or sell a one month that's how I started that's our exercise so to then go to an upstairs office where you have none of that no sensory input whatsoever and it's a learning curve too because it's like an old dog trying to learn new tricks here you know you make your share of mistakes and I didn't mean to hit by I meant to hit sell you know little kids grow up with these computer games and this take it for granted it takes a while to learn if you're trading multiple markets it's impossible to monitor all this stuff technically for more than say one or two markets at a time my eyes are right there this is all for show and tell if you think you can humanely process all this gobbledygook you are you're crazy right now I'm just looking at the last price so 99% of the time I'm just watching those go from plus 25 to plus 32 plus 25 and that's about it would you rather watch a football game on your HD with a camera giving you all the action that's open outcry or would you rather have that camera just focused on the scoreboard the entire game that's electronic trading that's the way they look at it and there's something to be said for that you know we always were trying to see who can get the fastest edge now its nanoseconds it's the computer is making that little marketplace that men use to make on their own back in back in back in back in back in back in back in back in back in coming down coming down coming down give us give us a shot let us play gold lot really deep it's hard to find a price I had it but Jesus it was too deep damn it pop you son of a [ __ ] pop pop pop look at it just it's supposed to be a money machine but it's a money machine that actually takes your money too you know I strayed at him you get a package yours not left yeah this here the blue side these numbers are whoever in the whole world's trading these are their bids meaning they want to buy it at that price this red sides the offers and we call it the ask they're asking for you to pay this price go go go go go go go go go this is good for the farmers let's do it for the farmers oh my god I just won't go that is fun I've been funnier if I got the price it's my second year trading and I was waiting for that day I got double digits and that happened at the beginning of the month I was pretty stoked about it tried being humble about it as any given moment just take it away from you too easy to just enter a market it's so easy to enter it all you got to do is click the mouse you know if you're having a good day and you just think like you can kill it still and then all sudden you're chasing it and you're losing it and then you're pissed and your emotions take over and that's mainly problems that people have with trading is controlling their emotion that's why now people make computer programs and plug them in the market because they can't get emotional the emotions built into the program but that's already structured so it's structured to kind of control its losses and if it's wrong it gets the [ __ ] out the analysts come in these technical nerds rotten people that all they're doing is putting logarithms and algorithms in monkey rhythms who knows it's a bass perturbation of the market because economic news comes out and the market should go one way it doesn't now there's only one reason for that the computer programs are set the other way and the markets don't react normally I made money for 18 years in a row and then I lost money for three years in a row because the computer was trading now did the markets change dramatically no the market still moves up and down but the computer makes it impossible for a trader to trade the basic principle is that one person is should not work with the computer alone generally there should be two programmers who should work in pair so they constantly you know review each other's designs and code one person's typing so like I'm typing I'm thinking through and he's he's saying what's going on right so we're constantly we're adjusting as we're typing these peoples have programs they say it's an you know a wonderful system if they don't you know no high jinks in it I think that these people have hacked in and figured out how to how to run the books late at night somebody's playing the game do you want you to introduce everybody or sure we've got Phil and then we have a Rajah over here Roger you sweep and back-end super high-end back-end programmers yeah this is Rama Rama how are you what are you doing again back-end high traffic systems I worry we use our full time warrior I'm a full time warrior Larry has done a tremendous job in bridging the gap between technology and the brokerage world Larry used to work on the floor himself and has taken all that knowledge he's gained over decades and being able to communicate it to all the developers here when we talk about world domination [Music] you always wanna have one of these around most of these people come in in the morning the bell rings they do the whole train Bell closes they go home but they're not thinking one step ahead and they're not planning one step ahead very few businesses will survive being run that way where is your business plan where is your forecasting which markets are changing where is the opportunity where is the technology to take advantage of they haven't learned to adapt you know it's getting you got a case of Darwinism here you know I've been wanting to get in the computer but I've been forcing myself to do trades I shouldn't be doing meaning trading bigger than I should putting more chips on the table and I should be taken away chips did that pitches sucks Linda the big contract and it takes you to that realm where you should be sticking to my guns on what I do would I get away from that when I'm there for people who have the money to make the transition you know great but for me no every time I think up there it's like you gotta get slammed it's just been a it's been such an uphill battle right now it's [Music] I've seen some of the most successful open outcry floor traders move to the screen and absolutely have zero success to be a pit trader and then be trading upstairs in a screen I'm trying to trade the same way it's impossible let's a large percentage of my business is working with traders and trading firms I am a master certified coach and I'm a psychotherapist and the application in the industry is huge I deal with individual traders I help them transition from being a floor trader to an upstairs trader I would take your hands and I would lead you away and say did you like that was that exciting great it's going to go away but let me show you the next coolest thing come on upstairs and I would take that person to an electronic training arena and say this is the future I mean you see guys just lose their mojo and they can't trade themselves out of a box and oftentimes it's just getting them to realize and become self-aware of what changed some people make the transition in a matter of months and some people it takes years and the difference is primarily how they're coming into my office the approach that they're coming in with are they open to change or are they coming with my life is over well the guy that's coming in my life is over we're gonna have a lot more work to do on the front end to get them into a transitional job [Music] I have a friend that said now I'm gonna go up to his office he's gonna teach me how to trade spoo's they've got it they've got a program it blew when you want to buy and read when you want it sell great when I was growing up everything was family everything we had summer vacation for three weeks we'd drive from one triple-a motel to the next of the next then we saw everything families nowadays it's hard raising a kid if they grew up too fast they never kids they're on this computer they're in this video world and the family unit is gone it goes fast and it's very sad and that's I can elude that to open outcry we lose open outcry we've lost an institution it's a beautiful world but it's a computer world do you enjoy computer life I'll tell you what I have never been happier I hate email I hate computers I don't really know how to respond to them I believe open outcry is the most honorable and the most efficient trade in the world it's a new game it's a new world all right crappy game well I mean if you were making a fortune trading electronically it wouldn't be a crappy game I wouldn't enjoy it there's a misconception that the local trader can no longer compete with the black boxes or the algorithm guys I can't first of all they gotta be right to market to I've traded for 30 years and I know markets it's a different feel okay so it's a it's not a feel it's not I think when I propose this analogy you're a musician but you're trained in classical music all of a sudden does that mean you can't play jazz that's a rhythmic that's a tonal sure you couldn't you prefer the classical music or whatever it is the market is like a symphony and as a musician you have to be able to play the music that the conductor gives to you and that's I think what the world has evolved to every market is volume is dominated Computers not cattle when that hogs look I stand corrected you're right but that's all you matter of time but they have this this program where they're bid for a hundred every nickel you hit him some miraculous way the computer gods I bought one from Rex this canceled I don't know they have better programmers the people that are making money are the programmers I say the computer is the worst and the most evil thing of trading that I've ever seen it's it's natural if I could convince you of anything after our discussion I want you to get this idea of somehow this alternative trading modality is evil and that I can't wait but I cannot beat the computer and that's not the computers fault it's not that my competitor is evil he's better he's more efficient if he's following the rules more devious why is it is what has these programs out there trust me when I say these people are cheating on the computer alright let's let's stop right there they're cheating who some people have better sources some people have better servers you want to race your car you don't get a Ferrari get a Yugo it's the same thing it's just a car I just want you to know that it's a neutral entity it has no catch a dozen it's evil and I think what happened in our industry is when it did the open outcry started going away and went to the computer people were in shock you know a lot of my friends left the business and are still looking for another place to go when they give me evaluations right out here in the seventh floor to supervisors offices everybody's gone in supervisors when they sent me down to the fourth floor I knew something was wrong I almost had like an implosion inside I started to tear I said you know grown man second I kind of knew it I kind of expected you can see if there's not a lot of stuff going on but for some reason I thought that I would be able to walk out the door when I wanted to I wish I had more tail I wish I had more tail and I wish I was more adaptable to the situation but I realized that I'm limited in my services here but when the electronics came they take the best and I'm I'm not saying I'm bad but I'm not the best I know that I'm limited sixteen-year right isn't born I was going to establish an office computer trading and then I pursued that and then during that I the markets for horrible great great excuse I was horrible trading and yeah that it was totally thrown on the back burner again in a year I wanted not be living in Chicago and hopefully I enjoy where I'm gonna go visit out west and if I enjoy it there that's right plan and residing and that's where I think I would be most happy skin in the winter you know summer just recreational things well I'd like to do is be a part venue [Music] maybe something that capacity like a search-and-rescue something you're out in the element and I kind of like that being out in the element maybe helping people something will you feel good when you come home at the end of the day Wow but you know it's the biggest feeling of the anxiety that you know you don't have that stress it's hard to explain just you're more at ease because you realize it's not the most important thing in the world I don't know if you noticed how the house is kind of cool I could never keep the house this cool when I had the wife and kids here you know we'd have to have a 972 then when Bobby comes and stays for the weekend I'll turn it up a little bit you know for him but during the week when I'm here I just turn it down on my bills like nothing very happy comfortable here when I come home from work and there's nobody else here this guy doesn't leave me alone I can't call anywhere I can't go from room to room whatever right and as far as the Bob I would love if he you know got interested in the business and found that he was good you know I've been kind of telling him to take an interest look into it I'm willing to show him what I'm doing with the currency trading and stuff like that and you know I think when he's really interested it'll let me know I'm leaving it up to him you know I'm pushing him into it [Music] this is great I don't know what I want to do with my life is a good place and I've already learned a little bit about it so what is telling me that now it's more transitioning into computers trading instead of people he told me too that I should get more involved with the computer parts because in like in about 10 years they're gonna come to me and say dad how come everybody but you became a millionaire in the 1990s I just I look back at it is okay that's just another opportunity that I wasn't able to take advantage of should I spend the rest of my life regretting it I don't think so you know I just looked on the upside you know my kids are healthy [Applause] [Applause] it's hard when you've been doing some twenty five years making good money and that just stops not because anything you did it just stops it's actually 87 cuz I got at my double O three bad John yeah right there in the crash that's a peep it one two three he's dead three you tired he's shot that's why I got in a casino business I wanted to get out of this whole business I'll always love kids stuff dens always collect little key I just like kids it's weird kids and warriors these are great kids moccasins it's the only reason I've gotten this far is because I've been tortured my whole life as a child I was tortured from my alcoholic father that's why I got hit in that's what's a little left of my motorcycle I've coming back from my daughter's soccer camp when I got is I was being followed by another parent and he came out I was you know laying on the ground when he saw me you know I was bleeding out of my mouth my nose my ears in my eyes because my head was blasted open I was just you know yeah I was dead you know the fireman you know he knows some of the firemen he said you know this guy's done this business was perfect for me it's a real test on your own character because the greed and the stardome and all that [ __ ] that goes with the money it's a lot of people up you know and it spits them out and one of the brokers spent down as long as me or even longer he goes way it was a good run we had I said run [ __ ] your run [ __ ] a run is something like when it's just I got this job they keep paying me when I go down and go to working I'll [ __ ] run it's [ __ ] this is like going to the mines every day [Laughter] [Music] yeah big God the big Dodger thank you buddy oh good the markets coming my way [Music] perfect this is our machine it changed the months we put orders in and on and then we get the execution logs geez I bought all these up a lot higher than the way the market is now you name it we got it it's a crazy crazy world we live in all right I'm gonna go into the pit and Trey my opinion the byproduct of the internet electronic trading it is creating more stability in the world stability meaning sharing wealth but also sharing resources if you didn't have these traders trading everyday it would be very unstable when you have traders trading against a particular commodity it stabilizes the entire pricing scheme because it's very efficient marketplace whenever there's a change there's a reaction to the change so the more people that you have trading throughout the world with different perspectives the more stable the overall price of commodities will be good evening this is an extraordinary period for America's economy over the past few weeks many Americans have felt anxiety about their finances in their future I understand they're worried and their frustration we've seen triple digit swings in the stock market major financial institutions have teetered on the edge of collapse and some have failed as uncertainty has grown many banks have restricted lending credit markets have frozen and families and businesses have found it harder to borrow money we're in the midst of a serious financial crisis [Music] yeah it's 350 points down the Dow good today after you know it was positive several times the ESPYs rally 50 points in the morning and ended up down 30 and the markets are under extreme pressure world is on fire right now listen to the sigh ready I mean is that something up it's probably every city in America sounds just like that in awesome you know but it's weird you have to be patient but then the patience has to turn into incredible decisiveness right be patient let it happen it's coming this is the price I could use and then the the you got to just hit it so fast you know where I want to get in is where that stop is damn you know is it okay let's do it let's do it the big announcement was earlier in the day when we had the interest rate a worldwide interest rate reduction which is pretty unprecedented even with that amazing moment which would in normal times rally markets you know rally Dow market the Dow probably 500 points we're looking at a negative down day still and you can look at the ESPYs this is on the the first that first initial reaction and of course they overshoot that everybody's looking for a way to get out so I think what we're hoping is for it to rally but the entire planet is you know it's a whole global effort now it's not just us you know that it's we affected we're a big part of the global economy so they don't want us to fail they don't they can't have our thought it failed because we're a consumer nation so our dollars doing bad they're gonna do bad what's your role in all this I ride the wave that's all I do you know it's funny because I look back in the 80s and 90s traders were the kings the back office fellas in the computer boys we would laugh at them and they got their revenge...