The big surprise was how small and intimate is the stage on which these global transactions take place. Each trade between buyers and sellers lasts less than 30 minutes. Sellers sit in a circle on red curved benches with their clerks behind them. The clerks act as intermediaries with buyers who hover and huddle and move around. Traders signal with quick hand movements and juggle mobiles and telephones as they negotiate and complete the trades. Several traders had two telephones to their ears and were talking into them. At intervals some reversed the handsets so buyers could talk directly to each other. Action and passion seemed to ebb and flow and move from one group to another. Short periods of relative silence when little seemed to be happening were followed by furious bursts of noise when everyone talked at the same time. It was a glimpse of how the City was before the Big Bang in the 1980s. Even behind the glass walls of our viewing gallery you could smell the adrenalin. There were few women and few grey hairs.
Trading is still a young man’s profession. It was a fascinating and memorable visit.
