Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange by Bob Pisani

Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange by Bob Pisani

PART ONE
Working at the NYSE

CHAPTER 1
Welcome to the New York Stock Exchange
September 1997. The floor of the New York Stock Exchange. My first day
as On-Air Stocks Correspondent for CNBC. My first hit.
I’m waiting for the anchor, my friend Bill Griffeth, to toss to me. It’s
shortly after the open. The floor is buzzing with the sound of 4,000 brokers
screaming orders at each other.
Bob Zito, the man in charge of communications and marketing for the
NYSE and the one responsible for allowing reporters on the floor, is
standing in front of me, just out of sight of the camera, which is mounted on
the balcony and pointed toward me on the floor.
He is there to observe my first hit. About 10 seconds before I appear on
camera, Zito walks up to me, smiles, and hands me a note.
It says, “YOUR FLY IS DOWN.”
As I’m reading it, I hear in my ear, “Now let’s go down to Bob Pisani on
the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Bob?”
That was my welcome to the New York Stock Exchange. My fly was not
down, but I spent several seconds staring at the camera, frozen, trying to
figure out if I should check my fly, while Zito collapsed in hysteria just off-

camera.
If that sounds like a fraternity party prank, it was appropriate. The floor
of the New York Stock Exchange in 1997 was a giant fraternity (it was
almost entirely male), and an elite fraternity at that.

Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange by Bob Pisani