Stock brokers? How do they get anything done with all the confusion and yelling?

Question

My husband and I were just watching a show and there was a scene with stock brokers yelling how many of what they wanted to buy or sell. It seems like alot of comotion, how does anything get done efficiently? Can anyone briefly explain how it all works?

I guess I shoulda specified the stock brokers on Wall Street... but I thought the mention of yelling and confusion would make that point for me.

Answer 1

The yelling is just to grab attention at first, the hand signals convey what your trading , eye contact is " with who", It may take three, four attempts to come to an agreement on price...and someone else may break in with a different order/price/quantity.....it's all confusing but it's like watching managers and coaches convey signals in baseball..even the guys on the other team are saying " What the yumpin- yimminy does that mean???"

Answer 2

What you probably saw was the old school "public outcry" auction method that doesn't occur much in the stock market anymore. I believe public outcry methods are more common in the commodity markets at this point. And either way hand signals are more common that yelling out your order.

Funny thing is that it is still pretty physical. I have heard that some of these guys actually go to a boxing gym to get in shape and boost their confidence in dealing with their market all day. "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd has some scenes that take a stab at representing the commodity markets.

One thing you should know is that a huge majority of stock trades never touch human hands and done by computer. Even the New York Stock Exchange has a huge computer called SuperDOT to handle most of their trades. Trades on the NASDAQ are ALL done over a computer network.

In the long run the whole idea though is to get your price to that one point on the Earth where your security trades. Despite what it looks like, it does work and it is efficient. One way or another if you have a good price and there is someone else there willing to trade at your price it will get done believe it or not!

Answer 3

Those aren't what all stock brokers do, a lot of them do business online you were probably just watching wall street