The last trading session of the year is here.
Runners and trade checkers would collect all the discarded newspapers laying around the pits and trading floor. They would find empty boxes that once held trading cards and fill them with ripped up pieces of paper.
Everyone would make sure that they had a handful of confetti in each of the pockets on their trading jackets.
Some guys would bring their families down to see the closing bell on New Years Eve. It was that extravagant.
Another job given to the runners was to go down to Ceres and get “To Go” cups. The guards were always tough about sneaking food and drinks onto the trading floors. Except on the last day of the year.
You could usually hear a slur to the bids and offers that were screaming back and forth in the last hour of the session.
In the Bond room the T-note pit wanted to outperform the bond pit and the option guys wanted to outshine the futures guys.
Over in the Grain room it was the Corn pit versus the Bean pit to see who can throw more confetti on the closing bell.
Five…. Four…. Three….. Two…. One….. Ding.. Ding.. Ding!
Happy New Year!
The quantities of contracts being traded and prices being bought and sold ended immediately and on that last day of the year…..
The trading floor air was filled with torn up “Tribunes,” ripped up “Wall Street Journals,” unused trading cards and even empty styrofoam cups that recently held a Bloody Mary from the bar downstairs.
It was New Year’s Eve at the Chicago Board of Trade. The year was in the books.
We don’t throw confetti at each other at the OakBrook Terrace Board of Trade, but there might be a cup of bourbon on a couple desks when the market closes today.
Fresh Start tomorrow… remember to bring your trading jacket home to throw into the wash.
