It's April Fools' Day and you can expect that some pranks and jokes might be pulled on Wall Street.
But the pranks are nothing like they used to be.
If you ever get the chance to speak to a veteran floor trader, you really should. They're likely full of incredible stories about the good (or bad) ole days on the floor.
They'll probably tell you about the amazing sense of camaraderie on the floor and the epic pranks they used to pull on each other.
"Every joke was invented down there," a retired NYSE specialist said.
"I always tell people that it was like being in a fraternity. The biggest jokes that were played on new workers and even better when companies had their clients come to visit were the spurs, an arrow on their backs. When the arrow (which was made of paper) was placed on their back everyone would do a tribal dance and chants. The customers had no idea what was going on, it was comical," a former NYMEX clerk told us.
However, the humor has subsided in recent years since some of the exchanges are publicly traded and have more eyes and television cameras on them.
"Fortunately, or unfortunately, you don't see those pranks anymore," another veteran floor trader told Business Insider.
Veteran traders both in New York and Chicago from the NYSE, CBOT, NYMEX and AMEX told us about some of the classic pranks and jokes they used to pull back in the day.
* If you have another trading floor prank, joke or story you would like to share, please send Julia an email at jlaroche@businessinsider.com.
A really long time ago, traders would launch cups of water at each other from their spring-loaded jump seats.
Location: NYSE
The Prank:"The old style trading posts had spring-loaded jump seats that the traders could pull down to sit and take a load off. Those days, they only traded two to three million shares a day, so there was plenty of downtime. The prank was to take a paper cup, fill it with water, and wedge it into the seat. The next sucker to pull the seat down launched this missile at himself - and got doused. Good clean (wet) fun!," the grandson of a NYSE trader told Business Insider.
If you tripped and fell at the NYSE, they'd make it look like a crime scene.
Location: NYSE
The prank: Back when the floor of the NYSE was super crowded if a guy would fall down, others floor brokers and specialists would draw a chalk outline around him.
The NYMEX folks would tell a clerk to ask a broker where the market was for an expired contract.
Location: NYMEX
The Prank: After a contract expired, you would tell a clerk or even a broker to see where that market was on the contract that just expired.
"So for example we are trading may crude oil now. Whenever that expires you would tell the clerk to see where that market is. They would go ask and everyone would just make fun of them. It was so childish but it was great," a former clerk told us.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider