Trading

Two years ago, my economics professor encouraged me to apply to some of the larger schools, and took me on a trip to see NYC where I first had the chance to visit Columbia. He has continued to do the NYC trip each year, and this year he asked me to come meet his group of students and talk to them a bit about my time here in NYC. It was a great day, we met up on the top of Rockafeller Center, where you really can see almost the entire city.
Then as an additional favor, Phil got me on the list to be able to go in and see the trading floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYME) from the gallery. The Merc Ex is much like the stock exchange, but instead of trading shares of ownership in a company, the NYME trades in commodities like oil or precious metals. Being able to see the trading floor was crazy, it was like some type of crazy bazaar, buyers and sellers shouting, getting in each other's faces, throwing order tickets ... Just nuts.
Unfortunately they didn't let us take pictures while we were inside (for security reasons); this shot is of Two World Financial Center, to which the NYME is connected. It's also an impressive building, many of the large financial houses maintain offices there. I'm not sure that I'd want to be a trader, but it was a cool experience and I'm grateful to Phil for getting me on the list. I'd also like to thank Warren Hochbaum (a friend of Phil's who works for the state banking department) for his help with getting in, I understand he had a lot to do with it as well.