Of Ron Zook, Twitter And Big Swinging Dicks

Ron Zook had a busy Wednesday afternoon. First, he went to the Chicago Mercantile exchange. Then, he channeled his inner Faulkner and finally, he tweeted about the entire experience.

But Zook isn't the only sports figure to haunt a trading floor recently. On Tuesday, BTIG in New York invited Eli Manning, Johnny Damon, Reggie Jackson and a group of other luminaries to witness the firm donate equity and derivative trading commission (yeah, that) to a stable of nonprofits. Charity!

The kicker of Zook's tweet ("Unbelievable intensity," if you managed to get lost in a 123-character message) speaks to one commonality between stock exchanges and locker rooms, and it's not the only shared trait. Go back and read Liar's Poker, Michael Lewis' seminal account of working as a bond salesman in the 1980s, and you will meet the studliest salesman on the floor, the ones who raked in millions of dollars and earned the obvious envy of everyone in the Salomon Brothers training program.

Their nickname on the floor, according to Lewis, isn't so different from what these guys are called in the clubhouse: Big Swinging Dicks.