Accidentally trespassed into Citi sales and trading floor today

As some finance headass once told me “the biggest risk always leads to the highest amount of success” or something idk. Anyways i was curious about sales and trading and knew nothing about it until today.
I would also like to start off by saying I am truly sorry if I did anyone or anything wrong but hey I saw the opportunity to fuck around and find out knowing the risk that might come with it and I took my chance.
So after this undergrad event at Citicorp NYC came to a close I was told that was it for the session and we are free to leave. So I walked out the main room into the lobby ish area and decided to explore a bit since this may be the last time I will ever be here. So I checked out a bunch of floors from 1-15 on the main side to take pictures because damn when they planned on remodeling I did not expect this. it was really clean and fresh with flowers and designs everywhere compared to other firms I visited. I like the whole museum thing they also got going on with the art along the walls. Then I got bored and decided to leave. As I’m walking out I look to my left and well would you look at that “trading office” next to more elevators. I went to the top floor and immediately got stopped by some guy and I was planning on saying sorry I got lost but he didn’t wanna hear it so we both got in the elevator to head down. It was awkward so my dumbass decided to made small talk. I admitted I was actually roaming and told him about why I’m here and how I just wanted to see that trading floor. He entertained my questions but he was like yeah you still gotta go. When we reached the lobby he whispered three and four as we got out the elevator. So I hopped back in after walking around the lobby. (Shout out to elevator bro from the 10th flr tech dept)
I tried my best not to break any laws but that kinda went out the window the moment I convinced someone to hold the door for me. It was such an ironic moment because I said thanks for holding it and she casually was like ha ha no problem it’s not like you’re not supposed to be here right? And I casually laughed, said some stupid shit to brush it off and walked right in. A door was open for the fourth floor.
This was around 6:30 so barely anyone was on the trading floor. Those who were I’m assuming were just quant Mfs doing some coding shit so I didn’t get to see the good stuff.
I didn’t want to touch anyones desk at first because I wouldn’t want that happening to me but I later found myself occasionally sitting down and reading a few notepads and journals left behind for a while. It was like an impractical learning moment since I literally got to read people’s thoughts and notes on anything and everything related to the actual work. So I felt confident and decided to strike up a convo w someone on the floor for advice or someshit and bro…. I slowly walked past this dude glaring at his desk then walked back and asked what they were up to and he told me to fuckoff LMAOOO but I totally get it so I walked away. I swiped a few things like pens, an empty citi journal, a book on citi’s trading strategy and another one on citis capital market review for 2023. I know I shouldn’t have because it’s probably sensitive information but they definitely weren’t using it so I might as well put it to use. But the best thing I snagged was a series 79 exam study guide that was from a stack of them in a corner. I made sure none of what I took was from someone’s desk but from the middle white ones w random shit on them like chic fil a sauces and calendars. That was also another thing I noticed like is there no other food options available? What’s with the chic fil a sauce obsession like I saw so many sauce bottles at peoples desks. Some dude even had a whole football just there.
In conclusion I was able to figure out Sales and trading is waaaaaay off then what I initially thought it was and actually lines up with my interests in finance so on the bright side I may have broken a few laws but I finally figured out what I want to do instead of investment banking.

 

one just gotta love Citi, especially their compliance standards

eating 2 sandwiches - FUCKING INADMISIBLE

staff improperly letting people enter in the trading zone without their own badge - upsy :$

 

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