What if, instead of you telling me what you wanted to buy and sell, at what price, and when, I told you I wanted to sell 1,000 shares of everything, now, and you had to tell me a price for every single thing where you could buy or sell, and hope to make a profit?


It's a totally different game. Working on a trading desk isn't predicting which direction something is going to go in from time to time. It's building a liquidity machine, out of customer orders, and customer relationships. And it's picking people off, with a smile.


If a customer comes along out of the blue and wants to buy a Chicago Option in XYZ instrument, that is what you are selling short. So you have to take your deck of existing unmet customer orders, and figure out how you can manufacture this option your customer wants, and where you can do it for a profit.


eLROY