From the Trading Floor

Word of the day: row
British people use this word more to mean “quarrel,” and I really like it. Saying “I got in a row with Matt last night over something stupid,” sounds much better than “I got in a fight with Matt last night over something stupid.”

What I love about London: clicking my heels around as another businesswoman in one of the top financial districts in the world, tucked away among cathedrals and monuments.

Floored
Well, I should be sleeping because I am interviewing one of the most important financial guys in the world tomorrow, but I am having trouble sleeping because I am interviewing one of the most important financial guys in the world tomorrow.

Yes, the intern and her trusty camera and list of questions will be interviewing the head of a huge custodian bank. I hope I don’t have one of my Bridget Jones moments. Or the lens cap is on.

Today I did two interviews and really have gotten the hang of operating the camera as I interview, although the multi-tasking situation is not ideal. The questions were scripted by my editors ages ago though, so it doesn’t require the usual interaction of interviews I normally do.

In order to get b-roll (the footage you see in filmed interviews that isn’t just a talking head) today, I went to the trade floor of an inter-dealer money broker. Oh my god -- it was pandemonium -- full of a lot of guys in suits that seemed like they were trying to safely land the Apollo or something. Shouting out “I’ve got a swap!” and rolling up their sleeves and getting on little black phones -- it was just like the movies. It reminded me a little bit of the excitement of how daily newsrooms are portrayed. Although I don’t think the idea of a crazy newsroom actually reflects reality the way the idea of a crazy trade room apparently does.

I tried to get out of there after I did a couple pans of the room, because I heard them mumbling about the camera and staring at me like I was from outer space. (I didn’t see any other females in the room.) The communications director warned me that they might push or curse in order to do their job “which is to make money,” so I tried to stay the heck out of their way.

I would love to have been a wallflower for the rest of the day. As I looked at their computers scrunched together like urban housing, I wondered what these people running the markets were like and how they shut this off at the end of the day and go home and be normal. I wondered if they are like the people in London I see every day who look like they work too hard at making it the center of finance in the world. I wondered what they were even doing.

I am now listening to: (Oh my gosh, you are all going to be shocked that I am listening to Christmas music at all -- and this early!) I can’t tell you which one, but my hint is that it’s a famous Christmas song by a pop diva that was featured in a movie that took place in London. Yep, that's the one.