Novem (Chapter 1)
It’s 8:54 AM. Time for the game to begin.
He rolls out of bed and onto the floor — quite literally — in the belief that the 22 inch drop will jar his sinuses and accelerate the process of waking up.
He knees himself over to the desk where he’ll spend the morning, and turns on the power to his workstation. In 6.3 seconds (he has timed it), the computer will arrive at the prompt where he can then press the login button. With the touch of his index finger, the operating system recognizes both his fingerprint and the code held by the chip in his right arm, satisfying both means of authentication.
Since he’s paranoid and likes the challenge, he has set up a third factor: a password, his 11-digit national identification number. This is his handicap in the game. The extra three seconds keep it interesting.
After pinning in his code, he rushes to his bathroom to brush his teeth, the only imperative in this game. The rest of the day is absolutely ruined if this is missed, as nothing good has ever happened on a day where he miscalculated and missed this hygenic rain dance.
He briefly eyes the room while regaining conciousness. It’s spacious but sparse, completely unadorned. The wastebasket is missing its bag.
He rinses, spits, then rinses again. He springs back toward the bedroom, knowing he’s two seconds behind today.
It is now 8:57 AM. There are 8 monitors set up in a semi-octagon on his desk in two rows. Each one holds either one or two of the crucial windows he needs for his work. There are twelve windows in all, each requiring a login screen. The finger swipe is sufficient for access to all but one of them: his NASDAQ account, which requires that and a password.
It’s a single log in for the site, but after an unsuccessful attempt, there is a five minute cool-down period. And if you’re not logged in by 8:59 AM, you are disqualified from the morning session. His password is set to 36 Unicode characters with a handful of alphanumeric characters mixed in, partly out of paranoia, mostly for the challenge.
He carefully presses the keystroke combinations set to the tune of a melody in his head. He slips up once, but recognizes it immediately and is able to undo the misstep. After pressing “Enter”, the program returns its verdict.
“Welcome, Joshua Jeremiah O’Malley.”
It is now 8:58 AM. The fun has ended. It is now time for America’s pastime.
The clock refreshes, and at 8:59 AM, the countdown begins. The NASDAQ Network begins handicapping the favorites for the day. Not just the stocks, but the traders as well. Every sport, at its core, is about its stars. The rules and the playing field are simply the negative space in which they’re designed to shine.
Joshua has avoided the press with great success. Most of the professional traders use their real names or a handle for branding purposes. He uses pipes for all 26 characters in his display name: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||.
NASDAQ N, as it refers to itself, will display the leader boards in total gross for each session, as well as the day’s total. It will show at most two screens of 12 people, so if you sit in 25th or lower during the displays, you will never be recognized on the broadcast. Joshua normally aims for 26th and has a season average of 28th this year.
One day, he chose some mid-sized widget producer in the Midwest due to their consistently mediocre earnings. When they destroyed the market estimates by 35% in a quarter, his daily profit shot up to 18th, causing a huge stir among the fans of the sport. All of the networks and agencies with credentials to look up his identity spent the next week attempting to get in touch with him for an interview. All of his inboxes were flooded until the next upstart hit the index, and the chatter died down. He still has a small but loyal following among NASDAQ die-hards, who refer to him as “The Unscannable Barcode” and to themselves as “Scanners.”
Trading commences for one second every ten seconds, followed by a lull for new trades and the processing of data. This rule change was made to prevent algorithmic trading systems from causing instability in the market after a two day crash in the markets over 30 years ago. Some of the more technologically inclined have cried out ever since, claiming that programming is a necessary skill in trading and it should not be hamstrung, while the vast majority of the country has preferred the human touch and the enforcement of “the spirit” of the game. However, the real reason behind the change which people have often forgotten, is that there are actual resources and financial consequences tied into the plays within the game.
At 12:01 PM, the morning session closes. The biggest stars in the game will continue fighting after the lunch break, while the mid-range players will be swapped out for fresher minds as dictated by management. They will take a seat for the rest of the day, while the up-and-comers and independent traders will continue their gambles until closing time. After a quick meal or a short nap, most will spend the rest of their night trying to rank in the international leagues and emerging markets.
Joshua logs out and turn off his system. He finished 32nd overall in the morning session. After the vast, inevitable gains and greater losses of others in the afternoon, he estimates he’ll settle in the range of 28th to 43rd. This means a profit for his firm in the range of eight figures for the day. They’ve grown from a virtual non-entity to a respectable mid-market firm since Joshua entered as a greenhorn.
On most days, his work earns him a small multiple of the average fan’s annual salary. It’s more than enough to do anything he pleases, so he’s content to rest for the remainder of the day. His firm hopes this keeps him fresh and happy, fulfilled enough to prevent his transfer to a mega-conglomerate. So far, it has, and given his love for anonymity, there’s little risk of that changing soon.
After a quick shower, he will take a trip to the café and resume playing the games he still finds fun.
