The Floor Trader Edge:
What Pit Traders Knew That Most Modern Traders Miss

You remember the old-school pit traders, right?

Bright jackets… shouting across the floor… somehow making million-dollar trades with just hand signals and a pencil.

Those guys had a massive built-in edge.

They could see who was trading, where the orders were stacked, and if someone walked in white as a sheet, trembling…
Well, let’s just say they were shorting the cr*p out of it before he could even start selling!

Information + visibility = serious edge.

And the best of them knew exactly what their edge was, and squeezed it for all it was worth. (Read my story and strategy from the days I used to listen to the pit audio.)

What they didn’t do was start wandering off… trying new setups… or trading random products.

They knew their edge and just did that….

Today, of course, things are different.

No barrier to entry.
Trade what you want, when you want, in any size you want (margin permitting).
Sounds great… or is it? 

The real problem is this:

When you can do everything, you get good at nothing.

• Those pit traders paid a fortune for a CME seat.
• They weren’t suddenly going to start trading IBM options on a whim.
• They were pot committed.

And as modern traders, we should really follow that lead.

Find your edge… and commit.

Not sure what your edge is yet? That’s okay.

I just recorded a short podcast digging into this exact topic:

The Floor Trader Advantage… and How to Build Your Modern Version of It

How to think about edge, where it comes from, and most importantly, how to find yours… with a little inspiration from the old pit traders.