Is it stressful on the trading floor?

It should be no surprise that in a profession racked with a constant bombardment of stress and pressure, people have many stress related illnesses.  After my first week there, I remember phoning home to my mother and telling her I felt as if I went 13 rounds in a boxing ring and got my ass kicked.  The fact is, we work in an environment where we had more than 1 person shouting at us at the same time and seemed as if we were trying to have a conversation inside a jet engine.  I can recall on more than 1 occasion when I yelled at a broker and neither of us could here what we were saying because the market was whipping around in a frenzy.  

Then there are the phones, each clerk has a small desk with a bank of at least 5 phones in front of him/her.  Sometimes, 5 phones are not enough to handle the amount of chatter that can take place when a market moves.  I used to think it was funny before I went to work on a trading floor when I saw a sit-com where all the phones rang at once.  Now, I literally get nightmares where I wake up sweating because I can't answer all the phones on time or I am trying to call a client and the call doesn't go through.  Another thing that amazes me about when the phones ring all at once is that basically people all over the world trading in my market react at the same time and try to call in to trade.  It is almost as if there is some underlying current that shocks all these people around the world into action at once.  

So combine the noise, the yelling to try to communicate with your co-workers, and the phones you need to answer at once and it becomes pure Lunacy.  Oh, and don't forget the fact that so much money is riding on the outcome of the market that people will get upset with you if they feel their orders were not handled properly.  So, one has to try and concentrate on the matter at hand and block out the other noise.  It is a pure sensory overload.

I always laugh to myself when I hear people who don't work in my profession tell us we have such easy hours (I finish work in the early afternoon). The effects of the open outcry trading take such a toll on you and it drains your energy.  Believe me, I have worked jobs where I put in 72/hours a week and they weren't as demanding as what transpires every day on the floor.

After mentioning all of the above factors, I estimate to know over 25 floor people I worked with who have passed away since 1999. I am not even taking into account those people who were killed on 9/11.  These people simply died from Heart Attacks, Strokes, or Cancer.  Some I knew really well, others I knew from passing.  A couple of the fatalities were very sad for me.  

I watched in horror once as a guy died on the spot from a heart attack and was dead before the EMS could do anything.  The messed up thing about his death was it was in a different market and the wizards in charge of the product I was trading decided to carry on trading while this poor soul was stretchered off the floor.  So, those of us who saw it happen had to carry on like nothing happened while the people who knew the deceased were crying.  

Another fellow worked in my market for over 20 years and was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer and died only 3 months later.  His passing affected many of us, especially the ones who knew him over the 20 years he was there.  Then another guy who was very popular overdosed on prescription meds and I witnessed the despair of the people who tried to get him to stop using but to no avail.  

Sometimes, a guy goes home on Friday and just doesn't come back to work and we find out on Monday he expired.  The custom when someone from the floor dies is to have a moment of silence at 11 AM.  Sometimes, people forget there is a moment of silence and talk into the phones as if nothing is happening.  Once, I really tore 2 people a new asshole because they were talking on the phone while a moment of silence was being held for I guy I knew.  

Actually, I don't know many other professions (Military, Coal Mining, Fire Jumping) where so many people seem to die on the job and being relatively young.  I certainly don't want to make light of professions where people put their lives on the line to help others.  But, sometimes I just think about what I have seen in 10 years and wonder if I want to still be working there when I am 50.  

I joke with my wife that we could go back to her native Brazil and sell Pineapples on the Beach and I think I am only half playing around.  All I know is that the vacations I like to take now involve a lot of fresh air and beautiful nature.