Trading floor sounds--provided by software, not traders

From the front page of today's WSJ: When professional investor Ken Sullivan bought a big pile of Treasury notes recently, he did it surrounded by the sounds of people shouting out prices. It was almost as if he were right there among the brokers on the floor of Chicago's bond-trading pits. Mr. Sullivan was actually a few miles up the city's Chicago River, sitting in the office cubicle where he works. And the shouting didn't come from any humans. It came from his copy of MarketSound, computer software that cranks out pretend trading noises. "I never turn it off," said Mr. Sullivan, a 15-year bond-trading veteran. MarketSound is one of a wave of products capturing an unusual niche: former financial traders who miss the bustle of the trading pit, and believe they drew energy and even trading ideas from the noise. The sounds ebb and flow based on the size of trades and price movements. In general, the sounds get louder as the size of trades and volume increase.

Read the whole article HERE