Welcome back. Enjoy this latest article and then scroll down and please leave your comments/reactions at the bottom of this post. Thanks for visiting again!

All good things must come to an end, and this is the last in our series of 5 articles on Floor Traders and what they have to teach us about emini day trading, buying stocks or Forex and trading in general.

The original reason for creating this series was that I received a lot of emails from readers asking me to teach more about how the floor traders are screwing them over, and how they could ever compete with that elite group.

My hope is that while I personally hold pit traders in high esteem (it’s a tough job as I think you can see now), they are not necessarily smarter or better than you, and many of the advantages they used to enjoy are fading away … like the pits themselves.

So respect them, but don’t be intimidated by them … and certainly don’t blame your lack of trading success on them.

Rather than posting another video, I’m going to use this final post in the series to refer you back to a blog article I made back on April 15 of 2007 about my first visit to the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange).

I received a lot of great feedback on that post and it’s still one of my old articles that remains firmly in my memory even 2 years later.

The title of this post was simply “ME” and you can read it here:
http://www.topdogtrading.com/?p=18

… and if you are disappointed I didn’t post a video this time, here’s a video of actor Robert Downey Jr. visiting the floor of the NYMEX. At the end of the visit he gives his candid impressions of the experience. I’m just putting a link here rather than embedding the video because (be warned) there is some very, VERY colorful language!

If interested, you can check it out the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtc58sTsTpE

Please leave your comments below.

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Today’s lesson: What we can learn from Floor Traders about psychology when emini day trading, as well as the Dow futures and commodities trading. Who makes better traders on the floor  – people with brains or brawn? Is it better to be a scholar or an athlete?

Also addressed: What is the future of pit trading. Are all the seat owners going to get killed or make a killing?

In this video 3 NYMEX pit traders are interviewed to help answer these questions:

1. Fredo is a seat owner who has been trading for 20 years.
2. John is a floor trader who executes trades for his employer as well as his own account.
3. Paul is a clerk who has only been at the exchange for 9 months.

This is part 3 of our 5-part series.

Enjoy the video, then please click on the “Comments” link at the very bottom of this section to leave your comments.

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It was very interesting to read the comments from the first video of this series on Floor Traders. For some readers, their image of the floor trader was dramatically altered by viewing that video.

That’s a good thing.

One of my goals in sharing this series is to pull back the curtain on them because I found that many retail traders have the wrong impression of who is (or was) trading on the floors of the exchanges.

They have no super powers and they are not necessarily better than you. So don’t be intimidated by them.

My own first eye-opening experience when I visited the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was how these people were not so different from you and me at all.

I live in the Los Angeles area, and here it seems like every waiter and bar tender is a current or former “actor.”

What I found as I participated in the night life of Chicago was that many of the waiters and bar tenders there were current or former “floor traders!” That really shocked me.

Most of them failed miserably, not unlike most retail traders around the country (and world).

Of course the most successful traders (the vast minority) are very special people. They are very disciplined and treat trading like a business  – but that holds true of screen traders as well.

Anyway, I’ll save more regarding that topic for another post.

In today’s video you’ll get another insider look into what it’s like to trade in the pits. In this video floor traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are asked the following questions:

• What do you remember best about your first day at the Merc?
• What’s the funniest moment you remember at the Merc?
• What’s the scariest moment you remember at the Merc?
• Who is the most famous celebrity you remember visiting the Merc?

Enjoy and click on the “comments” link to leave your comments.

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Many of my readers have shown special interest in the behavior of floor traders. To people doing stock, Forex, dow futures or emini day trading, floor traders have a mystique and they want a peak behind the curtain.

I’ve never been a floor trader, but I’ve been trained by floor traders that took me right down into the pits of the CME so I could experience it up close and personal during market hours. I’ve visited the New York Stock Exchange, the Chicago futures exchanges  several times, but to me there was something special about the Chicago markets. The energy is very different than New York and I loved it.

I’ve also been to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, but that is now completely electronic and is as silent as the Chicago pits are loud. The energy of the TSE is just like walking into a library! Click here to read more about my trip to the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Most screen traders (those who trade from computers) assume that floor traders have some special edge that screen traders don’t. There is, or was, some truth to that. But actually most floor traders are not successful. In addition, the open outcry system of the floor is giving way to electronic trading and the “floors” around the country, and the world, are shrinking and even disappearing.

While that transition represents progress, the nostolgic part of me mourns that loss. The floor has a unique and exciting quality that I hate to see disappear.

So if the pits are on the way out, what’s the point of learning about them?

It’s important because screen trading gives you the impression that the markets move based on the lines and squiggles of indicators. But when you stand on the floor of an exchange you see, hear, smell and feel that what really moves the market is people. You can hear their energy, you can see the greed on their faces and you can almost smell their fear.

That’s the REAL market, and that’s what makes the market really move.

Today I share with you the first video of this series on floor trading. It is actually a preview to a new movie that is coming out which looks very interesting.

Please post your comments and questions below about the video and about floor trading.

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