Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  There are some moments you have that stay with you the rest of your life, and that was one of them.  I've been a "New Yorker" most of my life and most of my family and friends are still there.  There are three things that standout to me about that day, other than the deep sense of tragedy:

* Some of my relatives and friends knew I worked on "Wall Street," but did not realize our offices were in midtown, and not downtown.  Midtown Manhattan was basically unaffected.  So they had some frantic moments wondering if I was affected.  I suppose I'm lucky that I did not work at one of the many downtown firms.  I'm also lucky that I did not know anyone personally who died that day.  But having worked in finance, I'm two degrees of separation away from dozens of people who died.  Lots of people who had enormous potential.

* A few months prior to the event, I was given a small amount of capital to start trading.  I had gotten out of business school the year before and had been working on the desk for a good 6 months before they decided to let me trade.  On a trading desk, you have the TV on all the time (usually CNBC).  I find that channel annoying (my head wants to explode every time Rick Santelli comes on), but as proprietary traders, you need to have the news on (unless there's a soccer game on, apparently).  I remember the whole desk was just mesmerized to the TV when the first plane hit.  We had no idea what was going on, since there was no previous precendent for such an explosion.  Because I was still a relative noob, it never occurred to me to sell S&P futures or buy fixed income.  It's kind of like a surgeon who is mesmerized by the sight of gushing blood, without doing anything about it.  My job was to trade, and I lost focus.  So did the all the experienced traders on the desk, because the event was *THAT* surreal.  The big life lesson I took away that day was - no matter what happens, always keep your head.

* Finally and most importantly: You don't f*ck with certain people and certain entities.  The People came back strong.  The City came back strong.  The Country came back strong.  And everyone who f*cked with us are dead.  Was it worth it, bitches?!?

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