What do those little people on the stock exchange floor do?

[UberDave]

I see a bunch of people scurrying around on that floor like mad men and women. I don't get it. Isn't everything done by computers and networking the quotes? Are the people on the floor buying in multitudes or something? When I was little I always used to think that when you bought a stock, that man or woman on the floor had to buy it for you ....eh

 

[StageLeft]

They stress themselves to death.

When I was little I always used to think that when you bought a stock, that man or woman on the floor had to buy it for you

I think that's what they're doing although on a large scale. If you buy 500 of one stock it may be part of a greater chunk and these people handle those chunks...?

 

[aphex]

Little people like oompa-loompas???

 

[AZGamer]

Well, more likely your brokerage has the stock your buying, I'd think. It's mostly electronic now, making the guys somewhat redundant.

 

[Brutuskend]

They stress themselves to death.

DANG beat me to it!

 

[UberDave]

Originally posted by: Brutuskend

They stress themselves to death.

DANG beat me to it!

Yeah... have you seen some of the pictures of them when the stock market is down. Geesh, looks like they just found out their wife died or something. (Holding hair in their hand and crying and stuff, lol)

 

[cchen]

They're the ones who handle the stock buying and negotiating for the brokerage firms. (Learned that in Economics)

 

[stockjock]

They are called floor traders. When you put in a buy or sell order on a NYSE listed stock the order goes down to the floor and your brokerage firm has a floor trader that takes your order over to whats called a specialist. The specialist is the person that deals only with that certain stock. The specialist will either buy your shares or sell you the shares or match you up with someone thats on the opposite side of the trade as you..ie..if you sell then he matches you up with a buyer and vice versa...
So in short...all those people running around are Floor Traders.
Hope this helped ya...

 

[Ameesh]

they may stress themselves a lot but they only do it for a little while cause they end up making 10x what most of you guys make in a year if they do their job correctly.

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
they may stress themselves a lot but they only do it for a little while cause they end up making 10x what most of you guys make in a year if they do their job correctly.

ok so how do i become a floor trader then? What skillz do I need or is it more who you know.....

 

[dafatha00]

Originally posted by: gigapet

Originally posted by: Ameesh
they may stress themselves a lot but they only do it for a little while cause they end up making 10x what most of you guys make in a year if they do their job correctly.

ok so how do i become a floor trader then? What skillz do I need or is it more who you know.....

You need to learn how to scurry around like a mouse.