Yo Pit Crazies,
I'd been married about three months.
My cousin's wedding was a week or two out and I was the best man. Mostly we were thinking about the wedding and all the relatives about to flood the honeymoon roost my new wife and I owned at California and Baker in San Francisco, a full-floor flat.
Life was pretty good.
I took the bus to work at 5:30 a.m. and walked home every day down California Street, about four miles by my count.
It was a great life: floor trader, member of the P-Coast (the Pacific Exchange) and partner in a five-person trading shop.
September 11th started like any other morning.
When I got down to the floor, a building in downtown Manhattan was burning on the TV screens. The World Trade Center. I knew the AMEX and NYSE sat close to the WTC, so I figured we might not open. Then the second plane hit.
Damn.
It felt like watching a movie.
Most of us just stood there looking at the screens. My wife was up by then and called: "Honey, I think you should come home."
Nobody knew what other targets were out there, and we were five blocks from the Transamerica Pyramid. People figured any iconic building could be next.
No one knew what was going on.
The P-Coast PA announced trading wouldn't open that day.
As a floor trader I already knew anything could happen at any time. But the four-day shutdown that followed still stands as the longest for the NYSE and every other exchange in the modern era.
The rest of that week went dark while first responders sorted through the wreckage in New York. Seven days of option decay ticked by and nobody could do a thing about it. NYC rolled up its sleeves and started picking up the pieces.
I also remember St. Vincent de Paul in Cow Hollow was full that Sunday. The first and only time I ever saw it full. It was quite a wake-up call.
What I try to remind students: anything can happen, and anything can happen in trading. That doesn't make it likely. But be ready.
Trade for what you see, hedge for what you don't.
Big macro moves happen, and they'll happen next week.
Hope this was helpful,
Andrew Giovinazzi