Bulls, Bears and Sub-Prime Crashes: My Summer at the NYSE
by Clare O'Neil on September 17, 2007 in Features
News that I would be spending my summer interning at the New York Stock Exchange drew mixed reactions from family and friends. Most expressed interest and surprise. More radical associates responded with skeptical frowns and heavy sighs. My brother called me a “Harvard sellout.”
Admittedly, interning in finance was a departure from my previous work experience. I’ve spent my entire career working in progressive politics. While I believe that the political process is the most effective means of creating social change, I also know that business has to be a part of that process. The private sector – and the capital markets that allow it to function – underpins our economic system. Businesses create economic growth through investment, they make the products and deliver many of the services that you and I depend on, their taxes pay for many government services and of course, they provide people with jobs. Clearly, it’s a world that effective policy-makers should understand.
One of the many benefits of being at KSG is that when you decide what you’re interested in, a collection of the world’s best scholars and practitioners in that field are often within a few hundred yards. Those experts can either teach you the subject, or advise you how to learn more about it. Having identified an interest in business and finance, the Council of Women World Leaders, in concert with the Women in Public Policy Program, supported me to undertake my internship at the New York Stock Exchange.
Working at the Exchange was a great experience. I was given tasks that were substantive and engaging. I worked with many companies listed on the Exchange and undertook a range of research tasks about business practices and market quality. One of the surprises of the summer was how much I used the quantitative skills I acquired as an MPP1. Over and over I reinterpreted dense statistical analysis into language that decision-makers could understand – a line pretty much straight out of a statistics lecture.
After a short time of being immersed in the trading environment, I found myself discussing finance and capital markets in words I hadn’t understood a few months earlier. My desk was situated directly behind the Market Watch desk. Two men – who between them have about 40 years of experience at the organization – sit all day and watch the movement of the market. They are first to know if stocks are trading outside of their usual boundaries and first to receive any market-sensitive news on any listed company. Every significant shift in price or volume initiated conversation between them about the cause of the change. I learned a lot from listening to their conversations, and they were always happy to answer my questions about what was going on when I popped my head over the partition.
It was from this vantage point – or on the floor of the Exchange itself – that I witnessed the stock market response to Rupert Murdoch’s pitch for the Wall Street Journal, several major mergers and spin-offs, the initial public offering for some of the world’s biggest private equity groups and hedge funds and, of course, the subprime mortgage crash.
Another highlight was participating in the Closing Bell ceremony. I stood on the podium above the trading floor, and banged the gavel to end the trading day. While not exactly an intellectual achievement, the ceremony is watched by millions of people around the world.
I finished my internship in late July and went home to spend a few weeks with family before school began. During that time, I caught my brother perusing an article about subprime mortgages, his brow furrowed with confusion. He looked up and, seeing me, said “Hey sis, do you know what a collateralized loan obligation is?” In fact, I did know – and I was able to explain it to him in 100 words or less. Vindication never felt so good.
This article is part of a larger series “Summer Dispatches.”
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