Sep 11th 2001

This is my generations moment - do you know where you were? I was on the trading floor of Stafford Trading in the Federal Reserve Bank Building, watching Nokia trade premarket - it had a bad quarter or something like that. The guys behind me were on a morning call with Cantor Fitzgerald. CNBC was on and news broke in that it seemed that there was some kind of explosion in the World Trade Center. The market started to drop fast - at that moment thats what I was consumed by I didnt know that the explosion was caused by an airplane that had been hijacked by Islamic terrorists. The guys behind me lost there call to Cantor , they kept trying to call back and got nothing but busy signals, I dont remember the sequence of events exactly, but I do remember Mr. Stafford telling everybody to go home. I grabbed my stuff and walked out onto Lasalle st. with a cautious eye on the CBOT which was looming large across the street. I made a right turn on Jackson and walked towards the Metra Station, traders were streaming out of the CBOT and CBOE and everyone was walking in a hushed quick fashion, like you did when you were a kid in school during a fire drill. As I walked past the Sears tower like I had thousands of times before my eyes were looking towards the sky - everyone was looking up - everyone. As I started to walk into the metra station I got scared it was so packed, everyone trying to get to trains, it gave me a bad feeling, so I darted out of there and headed to my brother in laws office a couple of blocks away. By the time I got there the pentagon had been hit and both towers were on fire, there was talk of another plane headed for the Whitehouse. Aron's office has a window thru which we could keep an eye on the sears tower, so we sat there for a while watching the TV with one eye and keeping an eye on the sears tower with the other. After watching the towers evaporate, I walked to the metra station and went home.
What a horrible day, I have no intention of tying this to the markets, Im just remembering what the TERRORISTS did to us that day. I still find myself sad around 9/11, I think about the kids,wives, husbands, grandparents, friends and those two towers. People and things that will never be seen again. I hope the perpetrators are burning eternally - they took so much with them.
On 9/11 I will be remembering and sending my prayers to the families that are still undoubtedly
grieving.

JB