Meet the Street: Oldest Living Floor Broker Tells All

Michael Pascuma has seen many things in his six-plus decades working at the American Stock Exchange. Probably the oldest living floor broker in the U.S., at age 93, he started working as a runner there in 1927 when it was still known as the Curb Market, owing to the days when trading literally took place outside.

Michael Pascuma Floor Broker, American Stock Exchange

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Pascuma subsequently lived and worked through the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and after years of clerking for other folks, he finally became a broker at age 35 in 1944, and then owner of his own firm in 1973.

Throughout the years, his company, MJP Securities, has resisted using the exchanges' automated order entry system for his large institutional clients and still stubbornly places trades in person. Recently, though, Pascuma had to deal with something unprecedented, witnessing the collapse of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and the temporary shutdown of the exchange.

Michael Pascuma Jr., his son, who also was his partner, perished on Sept. 11 while having breakfast at Windows on the World.

In tribute to him, Pascuma, standing alongside New York Gov. George Pataki, Amex Chairman Salvatore Sodano and New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso, helped ring the Amex's opening bell on Oct. 1 when the Exchange reopened for business at its proper premises.

TSC: How old were you when you started here at the Amex?

Pascuma: I was born in 1909 and started working there at the age of 17 in 1927, which means I've been a member for about 65 years.

TSC: What made you come here, and what was it like back then? ...