Thanks to G.D. for pointing out this multi part, evening news story entitled "Life in the Pits" as it is an interesting snapshot of trading at the CME in 1981. The uploader of the 19 minute vid was the main subject profiled and I thought the whole vid was great, not just for the look back at the trading floor 33 years ago, but also for some parts which would be considered politically incorrect now.
To set the scene a bit, one year T-bill rates in 1981 were around 14% and because of raging inflation, all commodity markets traded w/extreme volatility. Must've been one hell of a time to be a trader (right Hillary Clinton?) and this golden era was also profiled in the 1985 book The New Gatsbys which I highly recommend reading. The newscaster mentions that at the time of taping, volumes had doubled from a few years prior so the trading industry easily captured the nation's attention.
The video intro is certainly an attention grabber: before dawn, a trader wearing a fur coat gets into his Cadillac, vanity plate UP TICK, and speeds off to the Merc. The ensuing stories relate the velocity which money was made/lost trading, likely due to pyramiding positions as that was a popular, yet often financially fatal, strategy back then.
One of the funnier segments was dedicated entirely to how life is lived after hours to showcase the trader's lifestyle including his condo (Lakepoint Towers?), blonde European wife, sipping Champagne at a club w/a toast "to free enterprise" and then grooving on the tiles. His wife says the following in the third segment, "He always call me and say I'm gonna play racquetball tonight, and oh I say Thank God. He's gonna beat the ball instead of me." LOL WUT
Another politically incorrect thing which stood out was the newscaster mentioning that most of the Merc "successes are white, Jewish, and male" which was generally true and somewhat obvious. To contrast that perception while simultaneously doubling down on political incorrectness, the last segment is on a black, female broker from Detroit and they profile her arriving in a Mercedes with 14k gold rims.
