Thursday. Day Four at the NYSE
The day I get to be on the podium for the opening of the NYSE. The redhead in the red jacket.
We had to arrive earlier this morning---8:00 a.m. There were few NYPD around today.
John Thain, the new CEO of the NYSE, spoke to us and answered questions for nearly an hour before the market opened. I only heard two things he had to say. The rest of the time I was drooling and taking in his handsomeness. What a major babe! He is 46, good looking, and impeccably dressed. Furthermore, he seemed to be as nice as he was handsome. Later in the morning we were talking about him and one of the men commented that he had never seen a tie so perfectly tied. Someone else suggested that his clothes looked as if they had been airbrushed on. By the way, his pictures do not begin to do him justice.
The two pieces of info I heard: (1) Investors anticipate events and the events get figured into stock prices 12 to 18 months ahead (2) The countries that will have the strongest economic growth are China, India, Russia, and Brazil, in that order. (International funds?)
At 9:25 he took us down to the podium for the ringing of the opening bell. From 9:10 to 9:25 I was concerned we were going to be late. We arrived on the podium and got situated in plenty of time. John Thain supervised the ringing, but one of our ladies got to actually put her finger on the electronic bell. It was great fun to look down on the floor and watch the opening activity. The other people from our class were on the floor at the base of the podium. They also had their pictures taken. A fantastic experience. Anything else for the week could have seemed anticlimactic.
For the rest of the morning we heard about Junior Achievement, and the Stock Market Game.
After lunch Murray took us down to the Board room where we had a group picture taken. Needless to say, the Board room was impressive. For our picture we stood on the original podium from which the first stock calls were made. The President of the exchange sat in a chair on the podium and the brokers sat in chairs---"seats"---facing the podium. The president called out the name of the stock for broker buy and/or sell responses. Trading was held twice a day---at 10:00 and 2:00.
We went back to our Presidents Room for one last speaker of the day----a broker. Nothing new there.
Afterwards Murray took a group of us down to the gift shop. I did well in my support of the NYSE gift shop. Since the visitors center has been closed, I have not been able to get any goodies. For a long time they didn't even have an online store. Now, they offer a limited selection. I bought a sweatshirt, a denim shirt, two pens, golf tees for Daughter and P. and a new NYSE scarf.
Because we were finished early---3:00 instead of 4:30---my friend and I took the subway to Times Square.
The Competion.
We bought a two day ticket for the double decker hop-on-hop-off bus. We took half the tour and ended up back at our hotel for dinner. Another memorable day! Tomorrow is the last day.
10:53:33 PM 
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