Intro

Wall Street culture is both celebrated (in movies such as Wall Street and Boiler Room) and reviled in the mass media (recent congressional hearings on the "bailout" of Wall Street and The Devil's Casino).  On trading floors around the world, billions of dollars of securities change hands everyday creating millions in profits for the top firms.  The lure of riches draws some of the best and brightest to Wall Street.  The compensation that top performers can demand is intoxicating and leads to some bizarre excesses.  Wall Street wasn't always this way though.  Sure the money was always good, but it's ranks used to be made up of blue collar hustlers who were quick on their feet and connected.  I was fortunate to land on Wall Street in 1999 before electronic trading, before caps on gifts, and before talk of caps on pay were around.  My run on Wall Street encompassed some amazing events, but none were more entertaining to watch than the melding of the old school blue collar culture with the new ivy league brainiacs.  This blog will give you the untold story of Wall Street from the trading floor.  The personalities, the scandals, the bets, and of course the excess.  Many of the names of the people and firms will be changed to protect the anonymity of my good friends, but the details of the stories (many of which will seem unbelievable) will be 100% accurate to my recollections.  I hope you find it as entertaining to read as I did living it.