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Julio Gomez
Julio Gomez
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The Heart of Wall Street is Still Beatin'

"I have a friend that I was ready to feel sorry for. He's a Sales Trader," says Julio Gomez, Founder, Gomez Markets.

I have a friend that I was ready to feel sorry for. He's a Sales Trader at a bulge bracket firm which, in certain times, invites envy. These days, it elicits concern. "Hey, are you alright...?" "Wow...interesting times, huh? Are you alright...?" "Lehman was riding high just a couple of years ago! Mother Merrill? Geez...are you alright?"Well, I sat on the desk today for a full three hours with my friend. I can't tell you what desk it was. Not because I'd have to kill you, but just because I now realize it doesn't matter. The point is this: it is decidedly business as usual on Wall Street. The events of the last few days are no more than additional variables to plug into the already highly complex algorithm that is the Global Capital Markets. To think that the failure of two iconic independent firms and the shucked-oyster-like gulp-down of a third is more than a hiccup - OK, maybe more like a benign upchuck - is simply hysteria. Believe me, I know it sounds like I'm trivializing the events, and maybe it's even insensitive, especially to the folks I just saw on ABC's Nightline walking out of Lehman with their personal effects in a box.

But what I saw today on the desk was even more compelling. There were armies of professionals chopping wood. Taking orders and finding places to execute them. Calling it quits at seven in the evening after they'd been at their desks since 6:30 (they all arrived by then, knowing that customers around the globe had a few things they might want to get done today). After twelve non-stop hours of routing and reconciling, on just two granola bars of sustenance, my friend could only say "it was just a retarded day." Forgive him the impropriety - he was protecting your money.

And that's just it. I felt safe. I was on the desk while Maria Bartiromo was giving viewers the hairy eyeball. I watched the cable body language occupying one small corner of one of my friend's four dynamically updating screens and it was amazing - just amazing - how detached that image was from the reality I was experiencing. The simple fact is that we made it. Did we make it through tomorrow? Please...that's not the issue. We made it through today. And from what I saw, we can make it through many more todays.

Julio Gomez Founder Gomez Markets"I have a friend that I was ready to feel sorry for. He's a Sales Trader," says Julio Gomez, Founder, Gomez Markets.

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