The strongest muscle

By: Ray Pellecchia

File Under: NYSE

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The market was awful yesterday and toward the close the record volume caused some system delays here. But at 4 o'clock I went downstairs to applaud, because Anne Allen and some of her crew were ringing the closing bell on their NYSE careers. And the timing of my saying this might seem strange, but to me, it's days like yesterday that underscore that Anne and her team have been the best in the business.

Let me explain.

Anne, our executive VP in charge of Market Operations, and five of her colleagues -- Paul Desroches, Dave Gurney, Tom Fay, Dennis Pallone and Charlie Riha -- are retiring after working here for a combined total of more than 200 years. They and many others have made the operation of the trading floor a first-class shop. Don't take my word for it; ask the people who run systems or trading desks on the Street.

Our uptime tops that of any market in the world. Still true today, even including yesterday. I know that even one problem, one bad day, is one too many. Our market was down for system problems less than a total of two hours during the entire decade of the 1990s. Even with all of the changes introduced since then, I'll still stack our record next to anyone else's. Nothing that happened yesterday diminishes that in my eyes.

I know, you want perfection. We do too. The goal here is not the "five nines" -- it's 100 percent uptime, day in and day out, and Anne and her team have helped NYSE achieve that most years, year after year after year. They knew the importance of providing reliable access to our market.

Unfortunately, much as we strive for it, there is no perfection in systems, in people, or anywhere else on this earth. Not me, nor you, nor the software I write this on, nor the system you trade with, nor ours. Stuff breaks; it did so before Hybrid, and it will do so in the future. Albeit rarely, but it will happen.

And on those rare occasions like yesterday, you could always find Anne and her team on the floor, the calm center of the storm, taking the heat but professional and unflappable and cool but urgent, keeping the bad from getting worse, working the problem like Ed Harris in "Apollo 13."

But I pay this bloggy tribute to Anne and her crew not only because they have helped make things run smoothly, nor because they're the people you'd want in your foxhole. There's more to it than that.

When I first walked in here, I knew nothing about anything. Anne & Co. always took the time even in their hectic environment to explain things in a way that even I could understand. They were the best people to explain these things, because they helped create the systems that made things go, and then helped people work with those systems, and managed the whole operation.

Thanks for answering all my dumb questions.

And when I looked for someone to uphold a standard, to do the right thing and expect it of others, you could always count on Anne for that. She's always been fiercely protective of the floor, protective of the people. She always tested to see if you had thought things through, considered all the possibilities. I would bring her some crazy idea for a stunt on the trading floor, and she would say, "Ray-mundee, do we think it's a good idea to [insert crazy idea here] on the floor at the close of a triple expiration day, with an index rebalance going on?" You had to have your stuff together. And that's a good thing.

For making me have my act together and setting the bar ever higher, my appreciation.

Lastly, I've been on the receiving end of so many acts of friendship and support from Anne, I can't begin to tell you. Anne introduced me to countless people on the trading floor and in doing so gave me an implicit endorsement that opened doors for me. She was a singer in the company's band and was one of the leaders who nodded affirmatively when a guy they didn't know asked to sit in on drums. I never had more fun than playing in that band. Anne was "early and often" in her support of this blog, and always pointed out to me when folks on the floor or elsewhere were talking about what that nutty blogger was saying. And I'm sure she has quietly helped me in ways I'll never know. Always encouraging, always challenging, always busting your chops, always taking an interest in you, that's Anne.

The heart is not just the center of emotion of the body. It's also the strongest muscle, the toughest, the most resilient, the one that everything else leans on for support, the one that keeps everything else going. To me, that's always been Anne Allen here, the heart of the place. Long may you run, Anne-ee.

And for the rest of the new retirees, I wish you happiness and health, and a little peace and quiet. After two centuries-plus of the din of the floor, right through yesterday, you've more than earned it.