[HN Gopher] Trading Pit Hand Signals
___________________________________________________________________
Trading Pit Hand Signals
Author : ArikBe
Score : 82 points
Date : 2021-05-09 10:11 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (tradingpithistory.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (tradingpithistory.com)
| csulmone wrote:
| Most people don't know that pit trading is still around! I work
| in SPX options trading and the CBOE in Chicago still has a huge
| in person trading pit.
| fighterpilot wrote:
| Why do they not close it and go full electronic? What's the
| point?
| vernie wrote:
| Where else are you going to get photos of that one dude to go
| with every day's "the market is up or down" article?
| dbt00 wrote:
| Long story short, options have so many more ways of buying
| and selling due to complex spreads that it's still worth it
| to have in person trading.
| coldpie wrote:
| How has that looked over the past year? :)
| anm89 wrote:
| I'm pretty sure the sign for Deutsche Bank is making a Hitler
| mustache with your index finger. That's something.
|
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/participants-cme/...
| rfdonnelly wrote:
| It even says "Origin Hitler's mustache."
| anm89 wrote:
| I completely did not see that side bar. Good catch.
| 74d-fe6-2c6 wrote:
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/participants-mati...
|
| That's more like it.
| Razengan wrote:
| Reminds me of the Drow, how appropriate.
| dnadler wrote:
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/functions-options...
| kolbe wrote:
| I was in the CBOT agricultural futures and options pits. Despite
| the fact that we had hand signals, yelling and then running over
| to a broker who had an order you wanted to trade was by far the
| most popular way for a trade to be executed. Hand signals were
| more often used for trade confirmations and for communicating
| with your clerks or trading partners.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| This is still the best (Hollywood quality) depiction of what the
| trading pit looked like in reality. Trading Places, 1983:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLySXTIBS3c
| sidpatil wrote:
| "Sell 30 April at 142!"
| shaftway wrote:
| It's so good because it was filmed on-location in the NYMEX
| pits before they moved out of the world trade center. Lot's of
| staff consulted on that part to make it accurate.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| Although that scene raises questions though: How did the two of
| them even get onto the trading floor (e.g. What firm were they
| with? How were they capital backed?). How did they have enough
| margin to sell that many futures short? Why was the market
| seemingly only open 20 minutes?
|
| I guess the implication here is they e.g. sold 10,000 futures
| short, then re-purchased 10,000 futures to settle it and kept
| the difference. The problem is that even if you wind up with
| net 0 futures, you still need to hypothetically cover the short
| position during the trading day, or you could be violating the
| law (this is typically via margin, but who agreed to lend the
| two of them that money?).
|
| Maybe I'm forgetting the part of the movie where they had some
| rich backer or approached another firm to bankroll them/get
| them floor access.
|
| PS - The movie is still tons of fun, and I'd recommend it.
| These unclear details don't really undercut the core message,
| just odd as they went to pains to get a lot of things right.
| fedreserved wrote:
| They used the life savings of the butler and the lady of the
| night who took in Winthorp to fund their operation.
| bmmayer1 wrote:
| The other part of the scene that doesn't make sense to me
| (unless I'm missing something) is when they first start
| shorting, it's clear that they're being mobbed by buyers,
| plus with the people saying "the Mortimers are trying to
| corner the market! let's get in on it!" it's clear that there
| are more buyers than sellers, so the price should keep going
| up. However, once they start shorting, the price starts
| dropping (starts at 142, then drops to 102). Does this just
| mean they are shorting between the two of them far more
| contracts than the market is buying in aggregate? The movie
| doesn't make this clear.
| dmurray wrote:
| > you still need to hypothetically cover the short position
| during the trading day, or you could be violating the law
|
| Selling futures short isn't fundamentally different from
| opening a long position. It sounds like you're confusing it
| with some stock market regulation. Though yes, you do need
| some capital to back your position, and you normally need to
| be a member of the exchange.
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| I had a laugh comparing the signs of the brokers GNI (japanese I
| believe?) https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-
| signals/participants-liff... and Deutsche Bank (German) -
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/participants-liff... .
| More innocent times...
| aasasd wrote:
| Weirdly the Japanese association is taken by Diawa:
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/participants-liff...
|
| But indeed the folks weren't too shy:
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/participants-liff...
| js8 wrote:
| Or this one: https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-
| signals/participants-cbot...
| secondcoming wrote:
| Ha, look at Babcock & Brown!
| jan_Inkepa wrote:
| Very good. This site really put me in a good mood.
|
| (This pagination is really awkward to navigate for that
| brokerage sign list though right?)
| chrisseaton wrote:
| https://tradingpithistory.com/hand-signals/prices-quantities...
|
| Bit rude!
| goodcanadian wrote:
| Only in the UK. Luckily, CME is in North America.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-05-10 23:02 UTC)