NYC-WTC_000230692

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

r I-------------------------------- ------- ________ _—------------------------------------------------- ( Traders Back in the Pits, in Queens, if Not Manhattan There are the handwritten signs trading floor, which is 3,000 square 80,000 contracts were traded dally. In Continued From Page DI

future. everywhere on the trading floor, la- beling the booths by number and showing the locations of restrooms, feet, compared with 12,000 square feet in the Manhattan exchange, that the board has reinstated the summer the last few weeks, volume in these markets is up, Mr. Taylor said, to an ■ average of 140,000 contracts a day, s “We were thinking we might need as well as a few fliers containing dress code — short-sleeve shirts and with the traders crammed into two this place for a day or two at some unprintable sentences about Osama slacks or jeans — until further no­ pits, one for futures and one for op- ' a point," said Guy Taylor, a board bin Laden. tice. tions. , spokesman. Like a relay team, the traders — With the traders using what is The Board of Trade is in talks with Although conditions in the Queens 180 to a pit — finish their shifts at the known as the open outcry method of the New York Mercantile Exchange, building, at 43rd Avenue and 23rd sound of a loud bell and rush out of trading, in which buyers and sellers the other local commodity exchange ' Street, are severely cramped — the 1,200 traders who belong to the board are now working out of two trading pits, instead of the 13 pits at 4 World the building to make way for the next group, which then has 15 minutes to take orders from customers on the floor before the trading starts again. gather in the pits to bargain — that is, to shout and scream — over prices, the poor acoustics in the in New York City that is the country’s oil-trading hub, to move into its head- | quarters at the World Financial Cen­ ter, which was not damaged in the I Trade Center — few are complain­ ing. Fred Palazzolo, a floor manager The traders, who will most likely be based in the Long Island City building for six months to a year ----------------------- , A. plan QeVlSeu j ■ j Sept. 11 attack, officials said. Mean- , while, the board is planning to add two pits to the first floor at 43rd Avenue [ s for Man Financial, who supervises while the board searches for a new . and two more to the second floor, as the trading and these days spends site in Manhattan, say they are-ad- after a 1993 well as to expand the member staging floor, where the traders make phone much of his time rushing between the floor and the sidewalk, said: “It’s something to get used to,” bombing' finally calls and wrap up their business after “Where we were was like our home. said Frank Colli, the owner of J & C ,“ the buying and selling stops. But we’re not exactly homeless and Commodities, a sugar trading com- COlTieS in Handy. Perhaps the most popular eatery we’re glad we have a place to go. I guess you could say we’re roughing it." pany, adding that the cramped quar- ters and added noise were among the -------------------- — around 43rd Avenue is the Jacques Caterers food wagon, which followed the traders to Queens from the World i § most difficult things to adjust to. Lunching on a salami sandwich in "It’s tough because you're out of Queens building make lip-reading Trade Center. Frank Pastore, who O H a folding chair on the sidewalk the financial district," Mr. Colli said, and hand signals, already an essen- runs the lunch cart, serves baked ziti , o across the street from the ware­ “So you feel like you’re out of touch tial part of the job, even more cru- and a slew of cold and hot submarine ;

1^ H house, Paul Spano, a sugar broker from Staten Island, put it bluntly: “We’re lucky to be alive. If l have to with the stock exchange. The atmos- phere is obviously not Manhattan.” cial. But to get a true sense of just how sandwiches. He was out of business for a few days until he heard from a friend that the commodities ex­ § bo sit in traffic, so be it." There is so little space on the floor — traders who once had their own hectic it is on the Queens trading floor, consider the trading volume change had moved to Long Island City. w os Many traders face longer trips to booths and as many as six telephone and the capacity of the current trad- work and a scarce supply of parking lines to themselves now share booths ing facility. The commodities are Mr. Pastore hauled the cart to , spaces. And on the Queens floor, be­ that have only two telephone lines — traded in contracts that represent Queens, found a locked parking lot to K© o cause of the space constraints, they that several said they were using the amount of the product being leave it in overnight, and was back in W o have to work in 90-minute shifts, local diners as makeshift offices, pil- bought and sold; one contract for business. O I o instead of having f^ur and a half hours of buying and Alling per com­ ing into booths to call custonjgrs on their cellular telephones, 7 cotton is.500 bails, one for sugar is 112,000 pounds. Asked bow long he would serve lunches in Queens, Mr. Pastore'said, o modity. It has- also gotten so hot on the In the old exchange, an average of “As long as they are here. I’m here.”

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NYC-WTC_000230693