Dopey, Love the site. I was a sell side trader and had no interest in being a sales trader when the market maker game ended – losing on bad positions was always so much fun. I’m managing a clearing firm now – thrilling; but pays the bills – there are many days I miss the TUMS, greasy breakfast, and out the door at 1:05 (Pacific time)
I don’t know if you take stories, but from being a specialist on the floor or a market maker upstairs – there was always some crazy shit going on.
One day I’m trading INTC – probably the biggest trading day it ever had – sometime back in 2000. We had the flow from about 4 decent firms and my assistant and I were just buried. Executing stuff off BRASS was always slow and we were running an hour behind all day. It quickly became obvious that was going to be, by far, the most profitable day that we ever had. About 5 hours into the trading day, one of the idiots from the agency desk comes over and says we have a print mistake.
Me – “What’s up?”
Idiot – “One of your prints is a dime away – a customer is complaining and it looks like I need to adjust 200 shares down 10 cents – it’s gonna cost you a little”
Me – “How much money we talking”
Idiot – “$20 dollars”
Me – “No problem”
So I forget about it and go back to trying to trade and somehow catch up. Two minutes later the idiot is behind me again.
Me – “What’s up now?”
Idiot – “There were a couple orders in front of the guy that I improved and now there’s about 6 of them that i’m going have to adjust a dime also”
Me – “How many shares we talkin’ about and how much money?”
Idiot – “It looks about 2400 shares and its gonna be $240 dollars”
Me – “Look, I’m swamped here – I really don’t care about $200 or $300 bucks – leave me alone – if it’s something that’s worth a couple grand, let me know – outside of that – get the fuck away from me and adjust whatever you need.”
The Idiot starts to walk away, and just as he turns the corner of the desk, I see him start to come back.
Idiot – “I may have been off a bit”
Me – “What is it”
Idiot – “Well, I think your lookin at maybe $340.”
Me – “Listen closely – get away from me now, do whatever you need to keep the customers happy. If you are back here one more time; I’m gonna throw you out the fuckin window – understand”
The idiot is shocked and quickly runs out the door. About 10 minutes later, he’s standing behind me with the head of HR.
HR – “Did you tell John that you were going to throw him out the window”
Me – “I did. Look I’m buried right now, we close in 15 minutes. Let me finish here and I’ll meet you in the office and we can talk about it.”
I spend the next 15 minutes trying to finish up and go out flat. All the other stocks I trade, have just traded themselves, we’ve been soes’d and customer picked off all day. I’ve made enough in INTC that I could care less and we just go through and flatten everything. Let’s start fresh tomorrow – this day has been unbelievable.
I wander into the trading room office and John and HR are chatting up a storm.
Idiot – “The trading desk is such a hard place to work and all these traders are so mean to me” – give me a break. I just made the firm more than you’ll make in a lifetime.
HR – “You realize that you can not speak to fellow employees the way you spoke to John today don’t you – you are going to have to answer for this.”
Me – “I really thought I was doing him a favor. From an HR perspective – if I’m getting ready to throw John out the window – don’t you think, for company insurance purposes – I should give him some kind of warning.”
HR didn’t find that comment as funny as I or the trading room did, who at this point were all rolling on the floor knowing I got an ear full. I was forced to have an hour discussion on company policy with HR and the company president. Later I had a beer with the president, who apologized for having to ‘play the game.’
Man do I miss the good old days.
Ex-Good Ol’ Days Market Maker
