Photos

Treasury bond pit 1989

LIFFE pit (unknown which one) from 1996.

Still feeling a little guilty from not posting much so figured I'd throw up some photos.  As usual click on the photo for greater detail.

Orange Juice Scene in Trading Places

Zerohedge linked this vid today as FCOJ is trading at an all time high and watching Trading Places never gets old so figured it was worth putting up here as well.

Butter and Egg Man

First let me say this is just a hunch cause I haven't seen anyone else make the same link....In the 1890s and early 1900s the term 'Butter and Egg Man' was used to describe basically a bigmouthed guy who would throw his money around.  Officially here is the definition from the OED, the bold emphasis is mine however:

(Ocford English Dictionary) butter-and-egg man U.S. slang, a wealthy, unsophisticated man who spends money freely 1926 H. C. WITWER Roughly Speaking 229 A couple of big *butter and egg men from Verona, New Jersey. 1927 Daily Express 31 Aug. 8/7 'Butter and egg man' is an American slang expression practically equal to our term 'greenhorn', that is, a man of money who spends lavishly and is an easy prey of the gold-digger and other unscrupulous persons.

Gee, that last part really sounds like a handful of floor traders I used to know!  By coincidence the CME was originally named the Chicago Butter and Egg Board when it originated in 1898 and kept the name until 1919 when it was renamed CME.  So far I haven't seen any evidence linking the original name of the CME w/this term but my thinking is they're somehow linked.

The usage of the term Butter and Egg Man was so widespread that Louis Armstrong recorded a song which captured the spirit of these guys as targets for gold-diggers. 

"Now she wants...a butter an egg man
From way out in the West
She wants somebody...who's workin' all day
So she's got money...when she wants to play"

Seriously I think I'm onto something with the link but no evidence so far!

Cockney slang

Big thanks to John Moore for sharing this recent article on cockney slang used in the City of London as some old LIFFE traders I've talked to mentioned the slang but didn't know the origins or sometimes meanings. The link for the entire article is below and listed here are the numbers which I heard were used on the LIFFE floor.

Modern trading killing off "barrow boy" market slang

NUMBERS:

A SPANIARD - 1 - From the Spanish name Juan

A PRICKLY - 2  - A prickly pear

A CARPET - 3 - UK prisoners used to be allowed carpet in their cells after 3 years

LADY GODIVA - 5 - Rhymes with fiver

AYRTON - 10 - Tenner rhymes with Ayrton Senna, the late racing car driver

A BULLY - 50 - From the 50-point bullseye on a dartboard

A MONKEY - 500 - The 500-Indian rupee note used to have a picture of a monkey on it

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*I'll also note/apologize for not posting much the past couple months.  Besides moving, I've been busy trading, learning new software, switching clearing firms, constantly traveling, etc.... but now hope to get the blog going a little bit more although the distractions listed still remain.