1/16 was a tinnie, 1/4 was a quack, 1/2 was a laugh, 3/4 was the orders. The worst part of being on the floor was the smell when guys in your pit were eating things like burritos. A funny story is when this one lone market maker controlled a pit, he was big and basically crazy looking. One of the large firms sent a new guy into to his pit and he flipped out. He ended up pushing the new guy, and while most every new trader would have walked away or backed off, this kid went after him and head butted him. So the exchange (one of the smaller ones) yanks them off the floor and says they will be suspended for awhile and were going to be in a lot of trouble. The kid's firm was large enough that they sent a letter to the exchange and said the kid didn't start it and that their firm had a lot more money and lawyers than the exchange so they better reinstate him. They were both back on the floor the next day.
Another one was in my first month on the floor the fire alarm went off. Well we have been trained since childhood to immediately exit the building when that happens so I start to leave. Then I look around and no one else is moving, so I ask someone else. He says that when he is busy trading he has no intention of leaving unless he see smoke or flames on our floor. That just goes to show you the mentality of floor traders. When they were filming Quicksilver on the floor, a trader I knew said he was busy trading and the film crew asked him to leave the pit for awhile so they could shoot a scene, he said no he was busy, so he ended up being in the film for a couple shots.
It was fun back when things were singly listed. People used to believe that a stock would go up whenever there was a split announced so they would come in to buy Calls. The stock would sit there and people would buy Calls so we raised them, the stock wouldn't move or tick down and they kept buying so we kept raising them. Eventually, after making a ridiculous amount of money, the pros would start sending orders in so we would move the market just long enough to avoid filling them. Before they changed things, some traders used to set the markets in the last minute of the trading year so incredibly far off that they could shift most of their profits to the next year.
Another one was in my first month on the floor the fire alarm went off. Well we have been trained since childhood to immediately exit the building when that happens so I start to leave. Then I look around and no one else is moving, so I ask someone else. He says that when he is busy trading he has no intention of leaving unless he see smoke or flames on our floor. That just goes to show you the mentality of floor traders. When they were filming Quicksilver on the floor, a trader I knew said he was busy trading and the film crew asked him to leave the pit for awhile so they could shoot a scene, he said no he was busy, so he ended up being in the film for a couple shots.
It was fun back when things were singly listed. People used to believe that a stock would go up whenever there was a split announced so they would come in to buy Calls. The stock would sit there and people would buy Calls so we raised them, the stock wouldn't move or tick down and they kept buying so we kept raising them. Eventually, after making a ridiculous amount of money, the pros would start sending orders in so we would move the market just long enough to avoid filling them. Before they changed things, some traders used to set the markets in the last minute of the trading year so incredibly far off that they could shift most of their profits to the next year.