Museum of American Finance to Host Special Screening of "Floored"

Documentary explores the up and down lives of traders

• Press Release
• Source: Museum of American Finance
• On 11:20 am EST, Friday November 6, 2009

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On Thursday, December 3, the Museum of American Finance will host a sneak peek screening of "Floored," a feature length documentary about the up and down lives of traders. The screening will begin at 5:30 pm and will be followed by a Q&A session with Director James Allen Smith and a reception in the Museum’s exhibition gallery.

About the Film

Enter a world where pandemonium reigns and reckless ambition rules: the trading floors in the financial canyons of downtown Chicago. Here, men use strange hand signals to buy and sell everything from pork belly to soybeans while wearing the weight of our complex economy on their shoulders — along with their neon jackets. It’s a physical, bruising place, one where a slight gain creates heroes, rich beyond what their high school educations should ever afford. But the wrong move on the wrong day can ruin lives. In “Floored,” Director James Allen Smith not only penetrates this cult-like profession and its closely held customs; he introduces the audience to the men behind the mayhem. Though arguably certifiable, they’re also a likable bunch where no party is too big and no risk too great.

Though traders must possess lightening-fast reactions and guts of steel, degrees or Ivy League educations aren’t required. Most live and die by their wits and instincts alone. It’s a way of life, of ego and excess that can’t be found anywhere else — but it’s disappearing like so many parts of our increasingly digitized world. The advent of computerized trading has forced many traders to make a sobering choice: adapt or get out. Smith captures their stories in a way that illuminates not just the traders’ triumphs and struggles, but also something about our shared humanity and stake in the future. At a time when millions have lost fortunes in the fickle stock market and fear abounds about the faltering financial system, "Floored" is a gripping, honest look behind the curtain of the trading floor that few have ever seen. (Run time: 80 minutes)

Tickets cost $15 per person, or are free for Museum members and working members of the press. For reservations, please contact Lindsay Seeger at 212-908-4110 or lseeger@moaf.org. For more information on the film, visit www.FLOOREDmovie.com.

About the Museum of American Finance

The Museum of American Finance, located at 48 Wall Street in the heart of New York’s Financial District, is the nation’s only public museum dedicated to finance, entrepreneurship and the open market system. With its extensive collection of financial documents and objects, its seminars and educational programming, its publication and oral history program, the Museum portrays the breadth and richness of American financial and economic history. For more information, visit www.moaf.org.

Museum of American Finance
Kristin Aguilera, 212-908-4695
Communications Director
kaguilera@moaf.org
www.moaf.org