WOMEN IN FOREX MG: You started trading on the
London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) one year before it opened. How did you find the job and what was it like to be a part of LIFFE at that moment?
CH: I saw a situations vacant advert
in the Evening Standard news paper about recruiting staff for a brand new market opening in September 1982. Tey wanted VDU/Computer Operators with a minimum of 5 years experience. I was newly separated with 2 very young children and needed to work full time... I applied, got an interview and got the job on the spot!
Tat first year was just a
whirl of activity and fun. We really had no idea what was in store for us. My first responsibility was to don a hard hat, skintight white jeans and show prospective clients/traders around the building site which was eventually to become the home of LIFFE.
from Chicago to show us Londoners “how it was done.” We just all had a ball! Every stage of completion was cause for a celebration in the Mithras Wine bar around the corner from the Royal Exchange, and there were more than a few celebrations. I joked around with the traders-to-be; I gave back as good as I got but everything was said in fun, and never once did I get offended.
MG: You made a name for yourself
at LIFFE, but not for your hard hat tours, I’m sure. What really piqued your interest about the work?
CH: Well finally, aſter 18 months I was treated with the
I just never experienced the problems that I heard in stories about other women traders. I was basically one of the boys (although prettier, ha!)
Te training trading sessions were
amazing. No one really had a clue what to do and most who attended only had to attend three
sessions
which was enough to give them a silver trading badge...aſter all, LIFFE could hardly open with no traders.
We were helped by some amazing American traders who were brought in
of planning, building, testing, training we went live, and on that first day when the bell went off, our lives changed forever. I was hooked. I can’t describe that feeling!
I was approached 3 months aſter we
went live to become a trainee trader. It was half my salary for longer working hours, but I grabbed the chance. I became a yellow jacket and then a red jacket within 3 months. I felt I’d arrived, but I wanted to learn more;
utmost respect by the guys, and it was because I was not a shrinking violet type. I just never experienced the problems that I heard in stories about other women traders. I was basically one of the boys (although prettier, ha!).
I do have one claim to fame though
on the floor. Tey had a dress code for men, but not women traders. I used to toddle into the trading pit in pink jeans, pink high heels and a tight t-shirt. LIFFE then had to come up with a dress code for women because of my Joan Collins-type style. My shoulder pads just didn’t fit into the red jackets!
MG: Was that how you got the FX TRADER MAGAZINE July - September 2011 57
FX
LIFFE was a stepping stone for me. MG: How did it feel to be a woman
working with ostensibly mostly men in what was one of the largest open outcry trading pits in existence?
CH: To be fair, I never really
thought about it. I’d already worked there for 18 months by the time the pit opened; I had time to become familiar with the guys and to what life at LIFFE was all about. It wasn’t like I turned up for work to be met by this mass of sweaty men eager to flex their muscles and mouth off at me; that might have been daunting.
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