The Buy Side: A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess

by Turney Duff

“Opportunities aren’t given, they’re made.”

I’ve only recently begun going out after work with my peers.

But here, with a glass in hand, I have as good a chance as any to move and shake. Maybe even a better chance than most.

if you do decide to resign, don’t let them talk you out of it, because they’ll never forget.”

Wall Street is nothing more than a bunch of boys and girls waiting for Christmas morning.

And the best part of making this kind of money is the freedom it brings. I never look at a price tag anymore. If I want something, I buy it. If I want to go somewhere, I go. I don’t owe a cent to anyone.

Always politically incorrect, Raj and Gary one day walked into the office with a dwarf, whom they introduced as an analyst hired to cover “small-cap” stocks.

If I’m going to be a successful trader, I can’t do it by just trading stocks. I have to be willing to club baby seals, park in handicap spaces, and demolish an orphanage to build a strip club. On Wall Street, the timid get trampled.

I think back to my early time at Galleon, how terrified I was at this time of the day. And how different I feel now, and yet there’s this gnawing feeling deep inside, like I’m about to be found out.

My goal is no longer happiness but serenity.

Acknowledgment, Intention, Gratitude, Humility.”