A Day at a Brokerage
Content
A day at a brokerage Here’s a feel of the action on the trading floor — as traders, their moves and moods follow stocks up and down.
Stick to your decisions regarding trading on any session. Yoganand D. Seconds fly past, and numbers flicker on monitors, their colours alternating between blue and red. Groups of people bunch around monitors, their unwavering gaze fixed on those numbers, phones buzzing…all in all, a normal day on a brokerage dealing floor! I spent a market session at the brokers’ and here’s painting a picture of it for you.
Floor action To start with, let’s get an idea of what a floor looks like. Above banks of trading terminals, a television glows, news channels spewing market commentary, breaking news, updates, interviews with corporate managements, stock ideas from pundits, stock consultancy and scrolling stock prices. On the floor, concentration levels are sky-high — not a single trader acknowledged my presence as I walked in a few minutes before the markets opened. They aren’t the least concerned as to who is coming in or going out or what others are doing, their attention is devoted to the twinkling red-blue screen. Traders’ moods swing along with the markets. For instance, a trader got extremely frustrated and annoyed as refreshments were delayed! But the cues that traders sometimes look out for beat logic as a few day traders were correlating markets with the moon. Apparently, it was a new moon day when I visited the office. As orders can also be given over phone, phones are constantly ringing as someone or the other tries to place their order, or find out what happened to their positions. But dealers did not always give importance
to all calls. I can sympathise with the ‘lesser clients’ plight’ here. It happens to me quite often. Whenever the dealer gets busy with an important client, I get put on hold for a few seconds. That’s one sure-fire advantage of trading from the broker’s office. You can simply tap the idle dealer, and market tips keep popping up ever so often. Client action “I regularly frequent this place to while away time,” says Mr Thakker, a retired 68-year-old investor. A bunch of four people surrounded each terminal to place their orders. They are a motley crew — businesspersons, part-time traders, retirees and even a homemaker was present. They inhabit the place, armed with packed lunches and diaries to record profits or losses. They are even provided refreshments by the broking house mid-morning! Television is the primary source of information for investors and traders. Thakker, for one, uses it to observe and trade accordingly. He was a bit worried as a few of his stocks were way below the purchase price and the latest Initial Public offering (IPO) stock was hovering below the listing price. Even as he was following this worriedly, more anxiety followed as he watched a particular stock
rally sharply after he had exited it with marginal profits only a couple of days ago
Stick to your decisions regarding trading on any session. Yoganand D. Seconds fly past, and numbers flicker on monitors, their colours alternating between blue and red. Groups of people bunch around monitors, their unwavering gaze fixed on those numbers, phones buzzing…all in all, a normal day on a brokerage dealing floor! I spent a market session at the brokers’ and here’s painting a picture of it for you.
Floor action To start with, let’s get an idea of what a floor looks like. Above banks of trading terminals, a television glows, news channels spewing market commentary, breaking news, updates, interviews with corporate managements, stock ideas from pundits, stock consultancy and scrolling stock prices. On the floor, concentration levels are sky-high — not a single trader acknowledged my presence as I walked in a few minutes before the markets opened. They aren’t the least concerned as to who is coming in or going out or what others are doing, their attention is devoted to the twinkling red-blue screen. Traders’ moods swing along with the markets. For instance, a trader got extremely frustrated and annoyed as refreshments were delayed! But the cues that traders sometimes look out for beat logic as a few day traders were correlating markets with the moon. Apparently, it was a new moon day when I visited the office. As orders can also be given over phone, phones are constantly ringing as someone or the other tries to place their order, or find out what happened to their positions. But dealers did not always give importance
to all calls. I can sympathise with the ‘lesser clients’ plight’ here. It happens to me quite often. Whenever the dealer gets busy with an important client, I get put on hold for a few seconds. That’s one sure-fire advantage of trading from the broker’s office. You can simply tap the idle dealer, and market tips keep popping up ever so often. Client action “I regularly frequent this place to while away time,” says Mr Thakker, a retired 68-year-old investor. A bunch of four people surrounded each terminal to place their orders. They are a motley crew — businesspersons, part-time traders, retirees and even a homemaker was present. They inhabit the place, armed with packed lunches and diaries to record profits or losses. They are even provided refreshments by the broking house mid-morning! Television is the primary source of information for investors and traders. Thakker, for one, uses it to observe and trade accordingly. He was a bit worried as a few of his stocks were way below the purchase price and the latest Initial Public offering (IPO) stock was hovering below the listing price. Even as he was following this worriedly, more anxiety followed as he watched a particular stock
rally sharply after he had exited it with marginal profits only a couple of days ago
