Funniest thing ever seen at a prop firm

[cresta]

was working "night bonds" at cbot around 1990 and whenever a trader was hungry it was common to send out a clerk to "smuggle"in a sandwich & drink in their jackets.
the staff at the turnstiles were generally tolerant ,altho some of them could be pricks .
anyway ,one of the "big "traders "was jammed with a position and payed his clerk to pick up a package from someone outside and bring it back on the floor inside his jacket.
sure enough on the way in one of the guards aks him to open his jacket .............the clerk freaks out jumps over the turnstile and makes a run for the stairs..............unfortunately his hurdling abilities were not up to much and he falls to the ground and is captured with what turned out to be a half kilo of cocaine!!!

the clerk did some hard time and his mother had her mortgage paid .i never did find out the traders name .

 

[captain_trips]

OEX pit - CBOE

(new) clerk offered $200 to pick a booger and eat it. He had to put it on the railing so that everyone could judge it for adequacy and allow him to proceed. Clerk Eats booger > crowd applauds > floor official promptly steps through the crowd and issues the clerk a $200 fine for "eating on the floor". (only pretzel rods allowed)

I also recall a very large wager involving holding a Chicago phone book over the head for 45 minutes.

 

[kwancy]

Quote from sammybea:

Daytraders for the most part lose their shirt. This is the perfect example. Many of the guys who came in to our firm during the bubble are now broke. Hundreds of thousands down the drain.. and most were in their 20's without an education. Look at them now.. I'm not unique in this case. I lost 80% of my net worth but at least had a degree. But I have known the game fairly well, and the players in them. These guys weren't stupid by any means.. but they saw people who were making sick money by a few clicks of a button and got suckered in.

After many of these traders left, owners of these firms became more desperate for commisions, and they reached out to ANYONE they could get their hands on. At this one firm- Block Trading which is now defunct- they would roll in senior citizens who literally looked like they came straight from Atlantic City and thought this was the newest form of slots. Trust me, I looked around at different firms, and for the most part, these were the new breed of customers.

Then came the marketing ploy. Many of the owners went after college kids. The common gimmick was "Why not spend your tuition money on a real education?" In some sense it should be illegal for firms to recruit like this.. but then again, daytraders are merely customers. Of course college kids fell for it, and then became slaves to the industry because they couldn't get a legit job without a degree.

There are guys here like Hydroblunt and others who trash people who try to get real jobs.. due to the fear of being "replaced by a black box" or "quality of life issues." All i know is that the few traders who are successful, NEVER talked like that. They knew there was no glamour in this shit. They were the first ones to admit they are in a dead-end job, but they had to make the best of the situation. And they are still making money after so many years.

For me, I had some great days over the last 8 years.. and still excited about being profitable after 03-04 being a total disaster. But whether you want to believe it or not, the guys who actually believe this is some kinda dream job are kidding themselves.

I would welcome some replies..

This cannot be a better description of how this buz is going. I wonder what alternatives day traders have, with or without a degree after this game.

 

[azmi]

this has to be the only thread I have read from first to last post - brilliant idea

 

[El OchoCinco]

Just curious why of all foods only pretzel rods allowed?

Quote from captain_trips:

OEX pit - CBOE

(new) clerk offered $200 to pick a booger and eat it. He had to put it on the railing so that everyone could judge it for adequacy and allow him to proceed. Clerk Eats booger > crowd applauds > floor official promptly steps through the crowd and issues the clerk a $200 fine for "eating on the floor". (only pretzel rods allowed)

I also recall a very large wager involving holding a Chicago phone book over the head for 45 minutes.

 

[jeffowy]

OMG,


This is the funniest thread EVER, lol.

 

[SwingOutOn5]

damn, I think I need to get in an office or on the floor....working at home is uneventful

 

[nlslax]

Really...
We need to get this thread going again.

 

[bestfriend]

We had an office in AZ with only 1 guy in it, but a lot of trading stations.

Someone went to the office to check on it and the guy was living in the office, trading in his bathrobe, wandering the building in his bathrobe, had a stack of porn in the corner. His clothes were strewn throughout.

 

[stock777]

Quote from bestfriend:

We had an office in AZ with only 1 guy in it, but a lot of trading stations.

Someone went to the office to check on it and the guy was living in the office, trading in his bathrobe, wandering the building in his bathrobe, had a stack of porn in the corner. His clothes were strewn throughout.

Yes, but was he profitable.