Wow.

I was recently accepted into a masters program in Financial Engineering with Stevens Institute of Technology. I had a meeting with my faculty advisor this afternoon (incredibly smart Dr. German Creamer) followed by a terrific presentation from the managing director of quantatitive finance for S&P (brilliant Dr. William J. Morokoff). It was a very exciting visit and I had the opportunity to engage with some of brightest people in finance today. Looking forward to more of that.

Anyway, I left my desk at about 1:30PM after a quick check on the markets. The day showed typical volatillity and I was confident that we would see a down 20 day perhaps. I left with more shorts in play. On the way in to Hoboken I participated on a conference call with a client who informed me that the DOW had just dropped 9% in a matter of 20 minutes. Wow. I did not see that coming. Not in a single session. 200-400 points would not have been a surprise. 1000 is insane.

There are lots of rumors flying about computer glitches, financial terror, etc. Bottom line, the instability of the market should now be clear to all. Sadly, I did not have a chance to operate the desk during this extremely rare event. I am not sure I would have done the right things - but I do wish I had a chance.

And finally, wow!

Cheers!