I guess you may remember the interesting documentary about close of the open outcry trading in Amsterdam, zooming in on a few traders. Unfortunately without English subtitles,  due to lack of budget according to filmmaker Edwin Trommelen. He says hi from Kyrgyzstan. Subtitles would be 2000 euros. Still possible.

Pit culture

Even without subtitles, someone happy with the result is a Chicago trader, Ryan Carlson (on the picture). Having worked on exchanges in Chicago, Kansas and New York – he’s more or less collecting footage from the pit over the ages. Nostalgia indeed, but not someone living in the past.

A nice anecdote about Amsterdam. He once run into the exchange building in Amsterdam on holiday, by accident. The bar, the red light district and coffee shops in the close vicinity of the exchange made a lasting impression:

Gotta hand it to the Dutch, they’re really disciplined and it’s little wonder why the various prop firms which originated at the Amsterdam Exchange dominate a lot of trading worldwide now.  I could only imagine how quick a setup would’ve killed off the population of any other trading floor.

Trading pit history

Read it on Trading Pit History. Apart from collecting random bits of history and artifacts from open outcry futures pit trading, he has created a massive archive of hand signals from the pit. Quantities, months, years, contracts and participants ; it’s all there in different dialects for CBOT, CME, LIFFE, MATIF, NYMEX and SIMEX. Skip the numbers, head straight to the participants. The signal on the picture here is easy. Deutsche Bank.

Exit through the gift shop

I see entertaining television game format potential in his signals. Exit through the gift shop. Some hand signal boards in print for sale. He still has to recover some cash from his account at MF Global.

Jack