Craziness on Wall St.

So Lehman Brothers has been hitting some hard times and it has made me reflect on how weird it is out here sometimes. When you think about Lehman or Bear Stearns, it's strange because for most of the bank, it's just business as usual. In the IBD nothing changes - you just keep on working and you have no idea that somewhere on some other floor there are traders trying to pull off hedges against your bank's huge mortgage-backed security exposure. You have no idea that your job is on the brink as you sit there and spread comps.

It's just crazy to think that at a place like Bear, all of the analysts felt like things were going well. Everybody looked busy, deals were getting done, pitches were being made. Then all of a sudden you start to hear that some crazy stuff is going on with lenders, hedge funds, short sellers, and everybody else. Before you know it, JP Morgan is there paying $2 per share and you're out of a job.

The traditional investment banking divisions are strong, but they don't bring in nearly as much revenue as the prop desks and trading departments do. Huge trades can bring in a ton of revenue, but they can also cause you to implode.

It's just weird to sit here and read about stuff going on at banks on the Street and realize that at any moment, somewhere in the bank, some trader could cost me my job, no matter how strong my group is or how many deals we're doing. What a crazy place this is!