I have my doubts about FaceBook. I’m on it and I post, but I can see why people don’t want to be on it. Anyway, I’m reposting some of my Great Moments in PSE History for those who worked and traded on the floor, but don’t want to join FaceBook. I know you’re out there.
The first group I heard about was the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange Alumni, created by Josh Smith. “What is your most memorable event on the floor?” I posted the following post on this site. Later a group was started by Stephen Smith and Kellie Miller-Robb, Epic Stories of the PSE. This group has many posts about the strange subculture known as the floor.
Even though I have reservations about FaceBook, if you worked on the floor, you might consider joining to see the photos of the floor. People have posted great pictures of the past. There are sixty photos there now. There are also posts by people who reminisce on their experiences on the floor.
Kellie Miller-Robb has posted her diaries from the Eighties and Nineties online. It’s a unique, gutsy and revealing look at those days and nights. You can find “Real diary of a 30 something in the 80’s” at
http://diary8090.blogspot.com/
Some of my stories are from a long time ago. I’ve learned that “floor stories” often have as many versions as there are people telling them. So, I want to be “not held” on stories that in some cases are twenty five and thirty years old. If you have a different version, or corrections, you can post on the “comments” or e-mail me at Worldcommander2004@yahoo.com.
I must have had about fifty memorable events on the floor:
The Christmas parties that Wayne Siepman, the owner of Coast Options, threw on the old floor. A buffet of free food. Tubs of beer. The joke was that the first traders in line for free food were always the guys that screwed Coast Options the most. The amazing thing looking back is that it took place during trading hours, not that much was trading back then.
The day of the power failure in New York. July, 1977. They made us wait, but eventually closed for the day. Many of us reconvened at 1244 California and wound up on the roof singing God Bless America.
The Santa Fe takeover. A wild mind boggling event. Seemed like half the floor blew out. Someone had come in very early and hung a banner that said: “This whole industry stinks.” Can’t remember the whole story on the banner, but I know one of our colleagues on FaceBook knows the details.
The party for the opening of the new floor. Let’s just say we properly christened that place. They had rented a little R2D2 style robot. It buzzed around and had a little video camera in it. It was irritating. It rolled up to a group of us who had been discussing how to destroy the little rental robot. It took off fast.
Quicksilver. The movie starring Kevin Bacon that was partly shot on the floor. They were looking for people to be in the movie. You had to have “The Look.” Remember people stayed real late for shooting. Then they’d come back for the trading day. It was like they didn’t leave the floor for a couple of weeks. The trailer is on YouTube.
The Crash. Still the craziest day. I remember I was at Jay’s Hot Dog stand after the close. I was just starting to think things would be OK when a trader came by with a gym bag with $10,000 in gold bars in it. He’d just converted cash to the bars. “Money won’t be worth anything.”
The Quake. I went to the floor the next day. Weird to see it empty with only the emergency lights on. Heard they were sending stocks back East to continue trading. We thought that was it. The business would never go back West again. (Have to admit it did.)
There were many slow, boring days, but looking back there sure were some crazy days.
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