He recalls one incident when he first became a floor trader.

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Some investors in an array of markets appear to be betting that U.S. interest rates will not remain low for the next three years, said Kevin Grady, a veteran Comex floor trader and president of Phoenix Futures and Options.

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Hewison is a retired floor trader who has been a member of several major exchanges, including the International Monetary Market division of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Index and Options Market Chicago, New York Futures Exchange and London Financial Futures Exchange.

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Now the NYSE itself has gone public, and Thain is replacing its antiquated floor-trader model with the electronic wave he pushed at Goldman.

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These thieves are the number one revenue source for the NYSE, after the snack bar, the gift shop and whatever concession they can command from the television studios that have set themselves up on the premises to capture all the inaction of the floor and its dwindling trader population.

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Lucy Aikman lost her job as a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange two years ago and hasn't worked since.

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Kevin Grady, trader on the Comex floor with MF Global, also said gold also has been hurt some by anticipation of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission meeting on position limits for commodities.

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Joe Petri was a trader who had been on the floor for three years.

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On the floor of the American Stock Exchange it is widely believed that any trader cocky enough to attract media attention is destined to "blow out" -- trader lingo for going out of business.

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