The man known as the dean of the New York Stock Exchange has left the building for the last time, but investors still have the benefit of decades worth of his accumulated wisdom, which he shared in daily dispatches and innumerable appearances on CNBC.
Art Cashin, director of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange for UBS, whose career in the industry spanned more than six decades, has died at the age of 83.
According to an email sent to UBS employees, Cashin in the mid-1960s became one of the youngest traders to obtain a seat on the stock exchange. His daily markets commentary, Cashin’s Comments, was read by over 100,000 people for more than 25 years.
As the years passed and the number of floor traders dwindled, Cashin remained a stalwart presence, having developed a reputation for conveying complicated topics in an easily understandable manner.
Although he had scaled back his commute to the NYSE floor due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cashin continued to work for UBS until his death. He remained a fixture in the financial press as well.
His rules:
Never bet on the end of the world.
Perhaps Cashin’s most famous quip dates back to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when he remarked during an interview with CNBC that it appeared traders were betting on the end of the world.
Cashin was a believer in a strategy known on Wall Street as “sell Rosh Hashanah, buy Yom Kippur.”
In a Cashin’s Corner note from September 2012, Cashin said he first learned about this approach to trading from older Jewish salesmen with whom he had worked early in his career.
“The way I learned it, you sell on Rosh Hashanah and buy back on Yom Kippur. The thesis, I was told, was that you wished to be free (as much as possible) of the distraction of worldly goods during a period of reflection and self-appraisal,” he wrote.
Lead with ethics.
When asked what stood out most in their memories of Cashin, fellow floor traders were quick to point to his character.
Cherish the holidays.
For years, Cashin would decamp to Bobby Van’s, a steakhouse across the street from the NYSE, for dinner and drinks every day after the closing bell. Anyone who wanted to join him was welcome.
“He had this open invite at Bobby Van’s, and if you wanted to go and join him, you knew exactly where he was,” said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, an institutional brokerage firm with a presence on the NYSE floor. “I experienced that many times, that experience with Art and his friends.”
