r/interestingasfuck • u/Key_Performer_3645 • 21h ago

Robert Downey Jr, visiting Wall Street back in 1992 and being horrified after only staying there for 5 minutes

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u/Matlachaman 15h ago

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u/khdownes 10h ago

How does one know if their specific callout was heard, received, and assigned to them (and not any of the other 10 people yelling next to them).

Do they get a had signal back, to confirm that their trade was heard?

Is each trader like pre-registered at the pit, and noted down alongside the trade, by the people tracking it?

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u/Matlachaman 8h ago

Pre-registered: well, you have to have a trading badge to execute trades in the pit. The badge signifies you have, or have been given by a company to use, a seat on the exchange, or Board of Trade. The badge is worn on your trading jacket and you had a 1,2 or 3 letter initial on it that was written down by the traders on their cards when they traded with each other. The trades are written on cards which are given to clerks from all the respective trading firms who entered that information from each trade into computers which matched them up. If any of the information between the matching trades didn't align completely you had what's called an out-trade, or a cut-out (the computer cuts out your trade before it's finalized) which had to be corrected by the traders before the trade was considered completed. If the quantity/month/price weren't exact between the two traders it had to be addressed. All books had to settle to zero at the end of the day. If you and another trader can't agree on the error the solution is to bust the trade and act like it never happened. Then you'll have to re-do the trade with one of the sides getting fucked and one side benefitting because the price usually had moved by then. And yes, there were people that would execute a trade, then have the market go even greater in their favor after that and they may act like they hadn't made that trade or say the trade had been at a different, and always more favorable price for them. You knew who the people were who had done that in the past so I'd check the trades with those guys quickly or even better, try not to trade with them at all.