Yes, it really has been that long. I’ve been trading across five decades now—starting in the late '80s, then through the '90s, 2000s, 2010s, and into the 2020s. In just five more years, it’ll officially be my sixth decade in the markets. Granted, I only caught the tail end of the '80s, but I was definitely around when Donald Trump was trying to buy American Airlines (AAL) or United Airlines (UAL), as I recall.
But not this long:
I’m not ticker tape old! Funny enough, the stock market once relied entirely on ticker tape—that’s actually where the term 'tape' comes from when we talk about stocks and options 'ticking.' Back in the day, all the information was confined to the NYSE trading floor. That didn’t change until the ticker revolutionized market communication. The next major leap came with basic hardwired computers, which carried us through until the mid-90s. In my early days, this is what we had to work with:
Back in the late ’80s, the best tools available were Quotron and other dedicated-line products like the Schwartatron, Bloomberg, or Reuters. Typically, a trading floor would have just one premium platform in addition to the Quotron machine. At the time, the entire trading world essentially ran on Quotron and trade tape data. There was no internet back then, so all option prices had to come through Quotron or other dedicated broker systems. As a floor trader, I had access to those feeds—retail investors didn’t. On top of that, I had full visibility into the order flow coming into my pit. The advantage was enormous. But by the late ’90s, the landscape started to shift dramatically—an avalanche of change hit the exchanges. Other trading floors began listing option products, and suddenly, the competition wasn’t just within my pit—it was across the CBOE, AMEX, and NYSE. Industry insiders saw the writing on the wall and launched the International Securities Exchange (ISE) around 2002. Order flow was no longer centralized. Things got so wild that, for a year or two, there was actually a business in arbitraging crossed markets—where one exchange's bid was higher than another’s offer. That lasted a few years, until electronic marketplaces took over. After that, the machines were in charge. Companies like Thinkorswim and Options Express—both founded by former market makers—helped ignite the retail trading revolution in the late ’90s through the internet. As the traditional edge from order flow and exclusive data access disappeared, many savvy traders pivoted, building businesses designed to help retail investors navigate the increasingly complex options market. By the time I retired from floor trading in 2006, the tools I once used as a market maker to manage positions looked strikingly similar to what retail traders had at their fingertips. By the late 2000s, floor traders could already see the writing on the wall—the next edge wouldn’t come from order flow, but from idea generation. That shift gave rise to Livevol, which actually started in my pit around 2003. One founder focused on trading and generating profits, while the other invested heavily in building out the technology. By 2010, they had developed a live platform that integrated data from all the major exchanges. Today, I still use Livevol data to power my Edge Hunter Sheets. Which brings us to the next major shift: AI. As with every disruption over the past 36 years, I plan to do what I’ve always done—learn and adapt. The only constant in trading is change, and five years from now, the landscape will look completely different. But through all the cycles and upheavals, one thing has remained: volatility never disappears. And in that, I’ve consistently found resilient trading strategies. The market evolves and shifts, but one thing is certain—it’s here to stay. I’m excited to have you along for the journey, and I’m confident we’ll uncover some great opportunities to grow our gains together. To Your Trading Success, |
