Marines Land on Merc Trading Floor
To Swap Tips on Working Under Fire
By AARON Lucchetti
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
NEW YORK - It wasn't exactly the Halls of Montezuma.
A contingent of U.S. Marine leaders known for their willingness to go in the way of danger, once again found themselves on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange last week, trading mock crude-oil and stock-index futures. It was all part of a joint training exercise devised to teach the Marines how to make quick decisions amid chaos. And, as they did in a similar session last year, the Marines acquitted themselves well.
After a slow start in which the soldiers appeared shy about shouting out orders or making the necessary hand signals, they warmed to the task. By the end of the session, the generals were outscreaming the real traders and loving it.
"There seems to be a natural empathy or bonding between our two groups," marvels Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, who helped launch the joint program last year. (As part of the exchange program, traders in April went to Virginia to see how it is to be a Marine.) "We're both required to make quick decisions With limited information. "
The Marines sought out the New York Mere as a likely place to find people making fast, high-stakes decisions. "We wanted to go somewhere with a little sweat and high degree of aggression," says Bing West, president of GAMA Corp., the company developing the software for the Marines training program.
In exchange for their floor time, the Marines invited some New York Merc traders to join them in a computer war game where the commodity traders taught the soldiers another thing or two.
"You should split up the windows [on the computer screen]. You can never have too many," suggested Eric Plateis, a silver trader. And Thomas McMahon, an energy-futures trader, advised the Marines to view a daily battle somewhat like a trading day. Traders typically go into the pit armed with all the information they can get, then shift their strategies and tactics to accommodate new information as it develops.
One thing the Marines clearly learned in their pit trading was the benefits of quick decision-making.
"Waiting around is a fatal flaw whether you're on the traders' floor or whether you're a Marine on the battlefield," said Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson.
But the soldiers didn't like the traders' resignation to losing from time to time.
"In trading, you win a few and lose a few," says Col. James Lasswell. "And we don't like the idea of losing a few."