Floored (2009) - full transcript

I remember they were
throwing paper in

the air and there was
just this mayhem.

I looked at him and
said 'what's going on?'

He said well you
know 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've
never seen before.

You know, eyes got
wide, I was just...

Everybody looked like
they were in a riot.

But there was some
kind of order to it.



And I just had to be part of it.

From that moment I
went literally back to

my workplace and game
my two-week notice.

Without having a contact.

Without knowing how I was
going to get on the floor.

I just knew this was
where I needed to be.

I needed to be onto the floor.

The biggest pits in the
world are here in Chicago.

Chicago Mercantile, the Board of
Trade, Board of Options Exchange,

even the Chicago Stock Exchange.

There's no place else that you
have nine thousand pit traders

all in one city, no where
else in the 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.

If Chicago's know for
anything else, let

it be trading capital
of the world.

This is Lasalle Boulevard,
all the way down.

In the 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 it's physical.

It was based on gentleman's rules.

It was based on integrity,
honesty, mutual respect.

But the business
in the pit was the

furthest thing from
gentleman's rules.

I mean, you saw the
worst in everyone.

You're standing there and
somebody spits in your face

somebody inadvertently
stabs you with a pen

or 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...
Quiet in the chaos.

The physicality in the
pit was ridiculous.

We got to the point where at
times the pit was physical

that before the start
of the opening bell

we could pick our feet up off
the ground and not fall.

The open-outcry process

is you know, eighty
percent bravery.

I mean 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

I remember the one
question they asked me:

'What do you want to do?'

I said 'I want to make a
lot of money and leave'.

You never found an ad in the paper

you know, it was all
people who trusted you.

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 brother is four
years older than me.

He had already been trading
for maybe about a year or so.

He thought I'd be really
interested in it.

I played sports in college

and my brother said that trading
in general is kind of like sports.

When the bell goes off... 'boom'.

Like throwing a touchdown
pass in Michigan Stadium

with a hundred thousand
people cheering.

Just that adrenaline rush,

I mean it's insane.

It's not a normal job.

I mean it's not a
normal job you're

not getting a salary
every two weeks.

You don't have this health plan,

you don't have your 401K.
You have to do it yourself.

When you've had a taste
of the money you don't

want to go back to being
in the corporate world.

I mean, I just couldn't see
myself working for a firm

and getting reamed on by a boss.

Probably, Seriously, I'd probably
tackle him or something.

I'd be like, you
know, 'Who are you?'

This is Credence Clear Water
Revival, that's my acronym.

This is my brother's first album.

The Endless Summer.

And I got it for you
know, colourful reasons.

You've got your little groups.
You've got your South Siders,

Your North Siders

you've got the Jewish
click, you've got the

Irish click. You've
got the Italian click

I'm Polish, I don't
think we have a click.

You've got to mesh
and mind your niche.

There's a lot of
uneducated people,

which doesn't matter.
The uneducated people

have a tendency too
to make good money.

When you're in there from 8:30
to 3:15 it's all about money.

One guy's misery is one
guy's, you know, profit.

Sad to say but that's true.

Not that I take advantage of that.

But maybe I would.

By the middle of the
nineteenth 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 stock
yards and slaughter houses.

And a town hall market that
would later become known

as the world's first
modern Futures exchange.

On April 3rd, 1848,
eighty three merchants

founded the Chicago
Board of Trade.

Futures trading provided
an opportunity for

buyers and sellers
to manage their risk

against unpredictable
price fluctuations.

Too many cattle this year?

The beef prices are low.

Drought in the Midwest,

the corn prices go higher.

If both the buyer and 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 to 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.

Entrepreneurs 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 know as Local traders.

As their roll expanded over time

they became major players
on the trading floor.

In 1981 the Chicago
exchanges introduced:

Metals, 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 in seconds.

Each time risking their own
money in the hopes of profiting

as they hold their own against
the expanding market.

Eighty bid.

Eighty bid. Eighty bid.

Eighty.

Thirty on two. Thirty on two.

It was a live auction

where the price of the commodity
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 '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 clerks would take
it to our clearing house.

Yellow coats were
designated for clerks.

Other than that, all the
different colours and

different designs that
you see down there

was to make you stand
out among the crowd.

There were guys that
had chequered jackets,

red white and blue jackets.

Anything that made you stand
out in your area of the pit,

because you needed to be seen.

It's a misunderstanding

that traders manipulate the price,

That they're responsible for
prices going up or down.

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
because when you

first come down here
it's overwhelming,

you can't figure anything out.

And quickly you kind
of discover that

guy's a broker, he's an order
filler, 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

arrogance and you decide
that you're gonna do this

because you've been practising
and you think you can do it.

Well that's really when
the learning starts.

Because that's when you realise
how incredibly complex

and often times scary and
difficult and hard it is.

These guys are professionals,
every one of them.

Many traders trade
with their own money.

Each and every day to go in there

and trade with your
own rent money,

not knowing whether you're
gonna make money or not

is terrifying to a lot of people

and I found it to be
very, very scary.

I don't have any clients.

I don't have any customers.

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 fuck up.

The nature of trading
is buying for one price

and trying to sell it
at a better price.

Period.

You get in there and you
make your first trade.

You know, if you get
whacked ten times in a

row you pick yourself
up by the bootstraps

and you do it again.

We started at seven twenty,

by seven thirty we were
dripping of sweat.

Fortunes had been made and
lost in the first ten minutes.

Everybody had their ups and downs.

I had bigger swings

clue to the size I traded.

It really depends on
how much you put on.

A five tick day,

a five tick day-a five
move from one to six.

You could make millions of dollars
depending on how much you put on.

One hundred lot,

if you put a hundred lot
on in the Eurodollars

it's worth twenty
five hundred dollars.

Ok.

There are guys that have
two thousand lots on.

So you're talking about two
hundred thousand dollars a move.

One tick.

So it moves five ticks,
you're up a million dollars.

It goes five 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 everyday and risked a house.

You know it wasn't
unusual for guys to

be making twenty,
thirty grand a day.

It wasn't unusual
for for them to be

losing ten, 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 stock's going up.

Fight? I mean 'chats.

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 going
to 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.

Commodity trading only
has two purposes:

to make a lot of money;

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 have made
more money than me,

but for some reason or another
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 tenth
or to the ninth race.

The good traders know when
to make money and leave.

I tell you. 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

knew how much money
you could make.

And so when I go away on vacation,

it didn't matter what
I spent because I

knew I was losing more
not being at work,

and then, so they said, "But
you could be losing money,"

and I go, "You know, you
never think of it that way.

Everything can be traced to

being around the best
traders in the free world.

I would watch these
guys trade in my pit,

and I would say, "If they're
buying, I'm buying.

If they're selling, I'm
selling." But I also wanted to

see, it was important to me,
how they handled a loser.

It's not what you make,
it's what you don't lose

that determines how much money
you have at the end of the year.

I would watch these bigger
and I'd go, how would

they handle this stress
of having a losing trade?

What do they do when
they had a losing trade?

I literally just
learnt 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's pretty junior,

she makes a little bit
more than my brother does.

My brother's a cardiac
anaesthesiologist.

My assistant is three
years out of college

and likes to drink beer.

You had a bunch of young kids

making more money than
they knew what to do with,

and they found things
to do with it.

Such as?

You know, I mean,
anything that you can

think of that you can
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 of girls
to go on the bus with them,

and by the time we get

we it wasn't me

I want that out.

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.

He said, "What kind of
number is that, $172?

Make it $100 or $200, one
or two, one or two."

I said, "Well, which
should I make it?"

And he said, "I don't
know. Let's flip a 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'd just say, "What
do you want to make the spread?"

He would do that.

He never won.

Every time he would over pay,

he'd take the money
out of his pockets,

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 to the pit and that
he'd meet me there,

he told me to bring a hundred, so

I went over there and he met me,
and brought me onto the floor.

And I knew a lot of
the guys because

I was doing business with them.

And some guys across the pit

were like going like this to me,

and so Joe said,
"They want a cigar.

Throw a cigar to them."
So I reach in the box

and I throw a cigar
across the pit,

and the guys were reaching
up and grabbing the cigars.

So I threw them everywhere.

I 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 he said,

"I'm the guy who's supposed
to throw you out of here,"

he said, "but I'm not going
to. Can I have a cigar?"

You know, every afternoon,
when the Bond would close,

we would all prepare
for it. It's like,

okay, the Bond close is hitting.

When you watch those guys
coming off the floor,

I mean, you could see their moods.

You could tell good
days, bad days.

You know, like, life-changing
days, we saw those days.

But it was palpable. I
mean, this was not like

5:00 and everybody punches out
and walks out of the office.

Every time you make money
trading it's like applause,

but only you hear it

because everybody else in that
pit is rooting against you.

You're competing next to folks
for every single trade,

and the fastest person
whoever says "buy them"

whoever says that
first gets the trade.

And you know your neighbour
sitting right here

next to you needs them
as bad as you need them.

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 that guy right there
next to ya, he needs them,

and you just said, "Buy them."

And he said, "How many did I get?"

And you're like, "None."

A good friend of
mine said long ago,

he said, "If you wanna
friend, get a dog.

You don't have
friends in the pit."

Most of the people can set
aside their differences

outside of business,

but sometimes when the all
mighty dollar gets involved,

people don't care.

I've seen guys yell and
scream and nasty things

ungodly things.

That's what helps them trade.

Yeah, and they probably
don't like you anyway.

True, that's true. They
probably truly don't like you.

There's no doubt about that.

If they had a chance to,

they would hit you if they could.

There will be fights

in the pits.

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 6 foot 3
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 fucking idiot.

I can't believe you'd
do that fucking trade."

You'd look at them and go,

"You got to be kidding me.

First of all, it was a good trade,

that's why you're mad.

And second of all, shut up."

And I think the guys that wanna
strangle you after every trade,

you kinda enjoy that,

and you wanna do
that again and again

because that means you're
doing something right.

That was the famous
line on Chicago was,

"You wanna 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.

He goes, "Yeah, let's
go fucking outside."

So we're walking out,

and the motherfucker turns around

and cracks me right
in the fucking face

hard.

I go, "A real fucking fight, huh?"

So he swings at me
again, and I duck,

and his hands go through
the fucking window,

and the blood is spurting
out like a geyser.

And he goes, "Mike, take
me to the hospital."

And I look at him and I go, "I
think it's fucking too late."

A lot of us have come from

no education backgrounds really,
other than high school.

We all started trading young.

Nobody knew anything.

I made, like, $2.5 million dollars

in five days of trading.

It's a pure business and theory,

but when there's so much money and
things like that laying around,

you actually see

what somebody's really like.

You either go in there

and try to be somewhat pure,

and that's who 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 shit like this.

You got problems.

They're so big; you can't
believe it until you

come up to them and see
how big an animal it is.

They think, Oh, you know
it's a giraffe. These

things are, everything's
dangerous in Africa

everything

because everything's
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
of, they call it a menu.

It's got animals on it, and
next to it are price tags,

so you look at something, it's
like when you go out, and you say,

"Okay, there's two
grand, there's a

thousand," as you shoot something.

Like we scope our
rifles in on baboons

because they're only 50 bucks.

Lion hunt was a rip off.

It's like the fucker,
they let the thing

out of the fucking
cage and I shot it.

That's the feeling I had.

You know, it wasn't right.

With the rhino it was
the complete opposite.

It was the last time I was happy,

when I got charged by that rhino.

Yeah, it's just not any fun,

unless you can die.

But you need the heavy calibre
for those big animals.

Oh, it's such a gas
shooting this thing.

Wesltey Richards.

Ah. Fun.

The beauty of hunting is that
it doesn't involve the Merc.

It doesn't 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.

Twenty-five 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 the whole power of 150
years of the future's industry

in Chicago, which is
where it started.

It's always been the broker.

The broker is the one
who has the orders

that come in from all
outside customers.

If you're in with that guy,

you can count on making a living

everyday of your life.

It's a game.

You know, it's who you know,
who you grew up with,

who you married, who's your
friend. All that shit.

I would've been way
more successful,

way more, I couldn't even tell
ya, if I could bite my tongue

and learn to play the
game a little more.

Like dress like this
everyday when I'm in my 20s.

Fuck.

I was a fucked-up little jag-off.

Ah, fuck, look at this.

Motherfuckers.

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,

you start thinking.

Thinking why I should
do this trade.

Why I should buy these.

Why I should sell that.

And anytime, anybody thinks,

you're usually pretty fucked.

I call the market a big whore.

The market is a whore.

It's out to fuck as
many people as it can.

That's its job.

It may not go against
you fast at first, so

you'll take a little heat,

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 in a, it feels
like in 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.

You're sitting there
with the prices

going further and
further against you

and it just feels like, almost
like sometimes you can't get out.

Let's say you're
down like $12,000,

and you're like, "I
should walk out of here."

I should realise, 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? I'll just, you
know, I'll buy a couple more."

And then wham. It goes again.

And the only thing that
goes through your head is

like, "All right, how much
am I losing right now?

There goes a car.

There goes a house."

It's like someone hitting 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 going
to 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 looked pretty

good an hour ago,
didn't they Pete?"

It'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 scan card.

You've got to scan you're way in.

Well if you scan it, and you
look down and the light's red,

and the guy behind
you's like, "Ooh.

Bad day yesterday?" Or,
"How you looking there?"

You're like, "oh no, it's good."

Well, you're like,
Come on. Come on",

Then it goes green, and
you're like, "All right, Yes.

I'm 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 Yen.

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
going to 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.

It's $1000 a point.

So every time it rallied
one point higher,

I lost another $1000.

Well, it rallied 100 points.

It was a $150,000.

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?

Tee No. 1.

I think we should
walk over this way.

So I went out, and I
got a job as a clerk

making, you know, $400 a week.

At one point, my wife
was drunk, you know,

and she said, "You're nothing
but a fucking clerk."

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.

It was like, well,

I can't just give up now because
they're depending on me.

All I know, is that when I was a
little kid, I wanted to be a dad.

From earliest childhood,

you know, I had a lot of brothers

and I just, I wanted
to be a father.

You know how to use that?

HO.

Okay.

Well, you just go to the
bank, you put it in.

Punch in that number when it asks.

It's going to ask you

what you want to do.

You want checking,

withdrawal,

and then punch in the
number, how much.

Okay?

When you put the card in, you just

put the card in and
you take it out.

You don't just leave it in there.

Can I go get gas with it?

With the card?

No. Get cash and pay cash.

Okay.

All right?

When I was in pre-school,
he came in and

he spoke to our class
and I remember.

And he just had everyone stand up
and yell as loud as they could.

And that was basically what
I figured he did all day.

I didn't really know.

It's rough.

Our markets are really thin.

And it was just a tough week.

By the end of the week,
I was asking people,

"How are you doing? How's
it going in there for you?"

Everyone of them was 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 headsets and say,

"Hey, can you hang on
a second? I'm getting

my asshole 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
$320 million 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,

"I really hope that I don't win."

Because I felt like

it would change my life.

And 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, an
alcohol addiction,

which break traders down.

And there was an incident where
somebody had dropped drugs.

And nobody, and
everybody's looking

at it, and nobody
would pick it up.

Because nobody
wanted to, you know,

be incriminated by
what was going on. So

everybody's sitting there
looking at the drugs

nobody would pick it up.

Drugs and alcohol is a horrible
stereotype of this business.

I think the high-strung
type-A people,

you know, gravitate towards that
whether it's this industry or

the sports industry,
or the film industry,

or insurance, it doesn't matter.

I mean those people,
I think, it's a

functionality of
their personality,

not necessarily the industry.

How do you deal with that?
How do you deal with,

Did you make money everyday?

Did you, what happened? You don't
trade now. Do you trade now?

I remember seeing two or three
grown men on the steps of the pit

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,
they could do no wrong.

They were there first, and they
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

at 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 any more,
or their children.

And it's pretty brutal,
really brutal.

A couple of months ago, I told
myself, "I'm leaving 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-thirty opens like
the Stock exchange.

Everything, all
cash opens at 8:30.

The trade was at 7:30 because

unemployment number
came out at 7:30.

So I missed that move, which
if I was on the computer

I would've had a chance
at trading the number

and probably would've
been done at 8:00.

Instead, I got to stick
around and wait for a

move later on 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 can just tell by my coat too.
It's faded just like the floor.

There isn't this floor trader
presence 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
500 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 '90s.

And the speed at which
information was

learnt by all players
in the marketplace

became so fast.

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 that.

They wanted to be able
to trade instantly

when the news came out.

And as they levelled
the playing field,

the people in the pits have
lost a lot of their advantage.

The computer brings
in so much girth.

There is no need for individuals
to bring liquidity any more.

In the old days, they would trade

five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten.

And a lot of trading would take
place between five and ten.

Nowadays, the 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, and a
short-term buy 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 to
drift away from the pit.

There would be less volume.

And I was spending
more in commission

trading with the box, as
I call it, the "box,"

the computer.

The vile, the most vile
invention in the world.

It is just a disgusting thing.

In the '70s,

I was on Wall Street.

I was at the discos, late
at night, having fun,

and I was a trader.

And it was immediate gratification

because you could come
in, in the morning

you'd have money in your account.

The next thing you know,

"Geez, I just made $1000.

Let's go out and have
some cocktails."

And we were sky-high for 20 years.

Should have retired, but I didn't.

Back to the Miracle-Gro.

I grew up in the late
'50s early '60s.

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 trader?"

Nobody's bullet-proof.

It's one of my favourite shirts.

The last five years
have been very hard.

We certainly don't mention
finances in front of the children.

You got to tighten
up the belt strings.

So we just, we like the sale
rack. We like the values.

The pits are what made
Chicago a banking centre.

50% Off.

It is a travesty that they are
hell-bent on going computerised

when the system works as it is.

They just want to get rid
of it and forget about it.

I have to wait another
year until one of these

guys gets marked down,
until the clearance.

And it would've been the
best power washer ever.

But...

But patience is a virtue.

The computers

really change the dynamics. You
don't need market makers any more.

Yes, they're in the pit,

but they're not necessarily making
a living the same way they did

maybe seven or eight years ago,

and definitely not the same
living they made 20 years ago.

Ok, What do we see here?

See, here's the depressing
part of a computer.

They are the thinnest of the
thin, in terms of people,

trillions of dollars
change hands every

day on the online
platform, in Globex

big numbers. But the pits?

No. Why? Because there's huge
bids, there's huge offers

there's no space in between them.

Easy for the computers
to match up.

When there's a bid
of three, and an

offer of four and
it's 20 zillion up,

you really don't need a lot of
human out-cry to add liquidity,

which is what humans do best.

You got to realise, 95 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's switched
over to electronic.

You'll have algorithms that
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 pit.

Two years, I've been
standing in the cattle pit.

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 out-cry.

I think one of the
biggest reasons some

of those cowboys
made so much money

was that they were excellent
at reading people.

Picking up the clues
on the brokers' faces,

listening to the volume,
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 just sit here
with no exercise.

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, it's like,

you're down there sink-or-swim.

You're in there
with a pit of guys,

all sweaty arm pits
and everything.

And I'm just trying
to open my mouth to

buy or sell a one-lot.

That's how I started.

That's our exercise for the clay.

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
and old dog trying

to learn new tricks
here, you know?

You make your share
of mistakes, and

"Oh. I didn't mean to hit 'buy.'

I meant to hit 'sell,"' you know?

Little kids grew up
with these computer

games, and just 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
humanly process

all this gobbledygook, you are

you're crazy.

It's like, right there.

I'm just looking
at the last price.

So 99 percent of the time,
I'm just watching those

go from plus 25 to
plus 30 to 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 out-cry

or would you rather
have that camera just

focused on the score
board 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 it's nanoseconds.

It's, the computer is making that

little marketplace that men
used 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 a shot.

Let us play.

Gold went 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-bitch, pop.

Pop.

Pop.

Look at it, just
ching-ching-ching-ching-ching.

It's supposed to be a
money machine, but

it's a money machine that actually

takes your money too, you know.

Nice trade Adam.

Did you get a package, or...?

Not left.

Yeah, this here, the blue side

these numbers are whoever in
the whole world is trading

these are their bids.

Meaning, they want to
buy at that price.

This red side's 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.

Buy them, buy them, buy them.

It just won't go.

Man it's fast, but isn't that fun?

I mean that is, that is fun.

Ah, it would've been funnier
if I got the price.

It's my second year of trading,

I was waiting for that
day I got double digits.

And it happened at
the beginning of the

month. I was pretty
stoked about it.

Tried being humble about

it because at any given moment

they'll just take
it away from you.

It's 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 clay, and you

just think like you
can kill it still,

and then all of a sudden you're

chasing it, and then
you're losing it

and then you're pissed. And
you're emotions take over.

And that's mainly the problems
that people have with trading

is controlling their emotion.

That's why now

make computer programs and
plug them in the market,

because it can't get emotional.

The emotion's 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 fuck out.

The analysts come in.

These technical nerds.

Rotten people that
all they're doing

is putting logarithms,

and algorithms,

and monkey-rithms, who knows.

It's a bastardisation
of the market

because economic news comes out,

and the market should go
one way, and 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 idea is that

one person should not work
with the computer alone.

Generally, there should be two

programmers who
should work in pair,

so they constantly

review each other's
designs and code.

Hum. One person's talking,
one person's typing.

So like, I'm typing.
I'm thinking through,

but he's saying what's going on,

and you do that in real time.

Right. So we're constantly

we're adjusting as we're typing.

These people's have programs,

they say it's a wonderful
system no hi-jinks in it.

I think that these people have
hacked in and figured out how to

run the books.

Late at night,

somebody's playing the game.

Do you want to introduce
everybody, or...?

Sure.

You've got Phil,

who's a nuclear
physicist out of Argon.

Hello.

And then we have Raja over here.

Hi Raja, how are you?

Fine thanks.

He's our super
high-end, back-end...

Super high-end,
back-end programmer?

Yeah.

This is Rama.

Hi Rama, how are you?

I'm fine, thank you.
What are you doing?

Again, back-end high traffic

systems.

What do you do?

I worry.

He is our full-time worrier.

I'm a full-time worrier.

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 been able to communicate
it to all the developers here.

When we talk about
world domination.

You always want to have
one of these around.

Most of these people
come in in the morning,

the bell rings,

they do their little trade.

The 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 you're forecasting?

Which markets are changing?

Where is the opportunity?

Where is the technology
to take advantage of?

They haven't learnt to adapt,

you know, you've got a case
of Darwinism here ya know.

I've been wanting to get on 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

when I should be
taking away chips.

That pit just sucks you
in the big contract.

And it takes you up into that
realm where you should be

sticking to my guns on what I do,

but I get away from that
when I'm in the pit.

For people who have the money
to make the transition,

You know, great.

But for me, no.

Every time I think I'm there,

it's like I get slammed.

It's just been such an
uphill battle right now.

It's,

I've seen some of
the most successful

open out-cry floor traders

move to the screen and
absolutely have zero success.

To be a pit trader, and then be
trading upstairs on the screen,

and trying to trade the same way

it's impossible. It'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 hand, 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 trading 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 often times it's just
getting them to realise

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 going to have a lot more
work to do on the front-end

to get him into a
transitional job.

I have a friend that says, I
got to go up to his office.

He's going to teach
me how to trade S&Ps.

They've got a program.

"Hit blue when you wanna buy,
and red when you wanna sell."

Great.

When I was growing up, everything
was family... everything.

We had summer vacation.

For three weeks we'd drive from
one AAA motel to the next,

to the next. And
we saw everything.

Families nowadays

it's hard raising a kid.

They grow up too fast.
They're 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 allude
that to open out-cry.

We lose open out-cry, we've
lost an institution.

Did you ever think you'd
see that on a door?

Very nice, very nice.

This is my new little world.

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 e-mail.

I hate computers.

I don't really know how
to respond to that.

I believe open out-cry

is the most honourable,

and the most efficient
trade in the world.

It's a new game.

It's a new world order.

It's a 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've got
to be right the market too.

I've traded for 30 years.

And I know markets.

It's a different
feel, okay? So it's,

It's not a feel.
It's not. That's my,

Let me propose this analogy.

You're a musician, but your
trained in classical music.

All of a sudden,
does that mean you

can't play jazz? It's
arrhythmic, it's atonal.

Sure you could. 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 of volume is
dominated by computers.

Not the cattle, and not hogs.

Okay, I stand corrected,
you're right.

But that's only a matter of time.

But they have this program.

Where they're bid for
100, every nickel.

You hit them.

Some miraculous way,

the computer gods.

I bought one.

The rest is cancelled.

"Well, where did you
go?" 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 have ever seen.

It's neutral.

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.

I can't win, I cannot
beat the computer.

Then that's not the
computer's fault.

It's not that my
competitor is evil,

he's better. He's more efficient.

If he's following the
rules It's more devious.

Why is it devious?

Because you have these
programs out there.

Trust me when I say

these people are cheating
on the computer.

All right, let's stop right
there. They're cheating whom?

Some people have better sources,

some people have better servers.

You wanna race your
car? You know, get a

Ferrari, or 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 soul.

I disagree. It has no conscience.

It doesn't. It's evil.

Well, what can I say?

And I think what happened in
our industry, is when it did

the open out-cry
started going away

and went to the computer

people were in shock.

And are still looking for
another place to go.

And are still looking for
another place to go.

When they were giving evaluations,

right out here in
the seventh floor

the supervisor's offices are.

Everybody's going to the
supervisor's office.

When they sent me
down to the fourth

floor, I knew something was wrong.

I almost had like an
implosion inside.

And I started to tear.

I started, you know,
grown man, starting,

I kind of knew it.

I kind of expected it. You could
see that there wasn't 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 talent.

I wish I had more
talent. I wish I was

more adaptable

to the situation, but

I realise that I'm limited
in my services here.

But when the electronics came,

they take the best.

And I'm not saying I'm
bad, but I'm not the best.

I know that. I'm limited.

A sixteen year ride isn't bad.

I was going to establish an
office, computer trading.

And the then, I pursued that

and then during that

the markets were horrible.

Great, great excuse. I
was horrible trading.

And it was totally thrown
on the back burner again.

In a year, I want to not
to be living in Chicago,

and hopefully I enjoy where I'm
going to go visit out west.

And if I enjoy it there,

that's where I plan on residing.

And that's where I think
I would be most happy.

Skiing in the winter.

Summer, just recreational things.

What I'd like to do
is be a park ranger.

Maybe something in that capacity,
like a search and rescue.

Something where you're
out in the element.

I kind of like that, being out in
the element. Maybe helping people.

Something where you feel good when

you come home at the
end of the day.

Wow.

But you know, that's that biggest
feeling though, the anxiety.

You don't have that stress
it's hard to explain.

It's just you're more at ease

because you realise 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 it on 72.

When 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. And my
bills are like nothing.

I'm 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 go anywhere.

I can't go from room
to room, wherever.

Right?

As far as Bobby,

I would love if he got
interest in the business

and found that he was good.

I've been kind of telling him

to take an interest, look into it.

I've been willing to show him what

I'm doing with the currency
trading and stuff like that.

And I think when he's
really interested,

he'll let me know. I'm
leaving it up to him though.

I'm not pushing him into it.

Hey buddy, what's going on?

You remember my son Bobby?

Hi.

So you're graduating this spring?

Yeah.

You know where you're
going to college?

- Not yet.
- Are you going to college?

Yeah.

I don't know what I want to
do with my life yet, so.

This is a good place to

because I've already learnt
a little bit about it,

so I know some, a little bit.

Well, he's always
telling me that now

it's more transitioning
into computers

trading instead of people.

He told me that I should get more
involved with the computer parts,

because then there'll
be more jobs for that.

Like in about ten years, they're
going to come to me and say,

"Dad,

how come everybody but you became
a millionaire in the 1990s?"

I just, I look back at it as
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.

I just look on the upside.

My kids are healthy.

It's hard when you been
doing something 25 years

making good money, and
then it just stops.

Not because of

anything you did. It just stops.

That's actually '87 because
I got my 003 Badge on.

Yeah, right during the crash.

What is that?

S&P pit.

One, two, three, he's dead

that's three, he
retired, he's shot.

That's why I got into
the casino business. I

wanted to get out of
this whole business.

I'll always love kids' stuff.

I was always collecting
little I just like kids.

It's weird. Kids and warriors.

These are great kids' moccasins.

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 what I got hit in.

That's what's a little
left of my motorcycle.

I was coming back
from my daughter's

soccer camp when I got hit.

And I was being followed
by another parent.

And he came out. I was laying
on the ground when he saw me.

And I was bleeding out
of my mouth, my nose,

my ears, and my eyes

because my head was blasted open.

I was just, you know

yeah, I was dead.

The firemen, he knows some of the

firemen, they said,
"This guy's done."

This business was perfect for me.

It's a real test on
your own character

because the greed and the
stardom and all that

bull-shit that goes
with the money,

No more squirls today.

Eats a lot of people up

and spits them out.

And one of the brokers
that's been down

there as long as
me, or even longer

he goes, "Boy it was
a good run we had."

I said, "Run?

Fuck you a run, motherfucker."

A run is something
like when it's just

I got this job and
they keep paying me.

When I go down and go to work,
it ain't no fucking run.

Fucking, this is like going
to the mines everyday.

Fucking people.

It's just me.

Okay, and then,

Yeah, big dog.

Oh, you look good man.

Thank you, buddy.

Oh good, the market's
coming my way.

Perfect.

This is our machine.

We change the months, we
put orders in and out,

then we get the execution logs.

Geez, I bought all these up a lot

higher than where
the market is now.

You name it, we got it.

It's a crazy, crazy
world we live in.

All right, now, I'm going
to go into the pit

and trade.

In my opinion, the by-product
of 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 stabilises the
entire pricing scene

because it's a 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 and their future.

I understand their worry
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 are in the midst of a
serious financial crisis.

Yeah, it's 350 points down
in the Dow again today,

after it was positive
several times.

The S&Ps rallied 50 points in the
morning and ended up down 30.

And the markets are
under extreme pressure.

The world is on fire right
now, listen to the siren.

I mean does that sum it up?

Probably every city in America
sounds just like that.

How's it going?

Dude, you lost $4,500.

It's nasty dude.

And awesome,

but it's weird. You
have to be patient,

but then the patience
has to turn into

incredible decisiveness.

Right.

Because, let it happen, it's
coming, this is a price I can use

and then, pew. You got
to just hit it so fast.

And where I want to get
in is where that stop is.

Just damn, you know?

Oil is starting to do
something here, so...

Is it? Okay. Let's
do it. Let's do it.

Let's go.

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

rally the Dow probably 500 points

we're looking at a
negative, down day still.

And you can look at
the S&Ps. This is on

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.

We effect it, we're a big
part of the global economy,

so they don't want us to
fail. They can't have

our dollar fail because
we're a consumer nation.

So if our dollar's doing bad,
they're going to 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 fellows
and the computer boys

we would laugh at them.

And

they got their revenge.