Hey Traders,
If you’re from Illinois or Wisconsin, you circled this weekend the day the NFL schedule came out. Every Bears fan and every Packers fan looks forward to it.
We get to taunt each other, insult each other and hopefully watch our team beat the heck out of the other one. (It’s been pretty one-sided for 20 years, at least until last season.)
This game’s going to feel different, though. Mike Ditka, the legendary head coach of the Chicago Bears, passed away on Friday. I gotta tell you, it feels like losing a relative, he meant that much to the city of Chicago.
Packers fans might not have loved him as a player or a coach. But I think even they can recognize what he gave to the greatest rivalry in sports.
I was seven when the Bears won Super Bowl XX. I don’t remember a LOT of that game, but I remember enough that Mike Ditka became one of my heroes as a kid.
The Fed Hiked. Big Money Didn’t Sit Still.
Andrew Giovinazzi’s AI scanner reads the options chain for the moment hedge funds pile into a stock.
And we all know the Bears win it all again the next year if Charles Martin doesn’t body-slam Jim McMahon in one of the cheapest shots in pro sports history. (Sorry, Giants fans, but you know I’m right.)
When the Bears fired him and brought in Dave Wannstedt, I went to my dad and asked, “How is this possible?” I don’t remember what he said. I just remember it didn’t make me feel much better.
On Friday afternoon, I found myself listening to the Score (Chicago’s sports radio station). Honestly, this hit me harder than I thought it would. I guess I feel like I lost an important piece of my past.
I listened to other Chicago folks share what Da Coach and those 1985 Bears meant to them. It felt good to be part of a community of mourners and not just sitting by myself.
On Friday’s Delta Strike session, I led off the show with the news, and we had a moment together. In chat, members shared their own Da Coach stories and sent condolences to the Bears fans in the room. Even the Packers fans chimed in with kind words.
Community matters. Whether you’re going through a loss, following a team, rolling dice in Dungeons & Dragons or figuring out how to be a parent, it’s really hard to go it alone.
That includes trading. If I were still on the floor, I’d have had my pit and the whole trading floor to talk to about losing Coach Ditka.
At Option Pit, I have my members.
Have a great weekend, and Go Bears.
Your only option,
Mark Sebastian