"This game is about inches, little decisions, luck, never forget that," grunted Bulldog, one of the great trading talents. "I saw that Wuhan mess in late Jan and bought S&P puts," barked Dawg.

"By mid-Feb they were pretty worthless." From Jan 31 through Feb 19 the S&P rallied 5%. "Once the market started to puke those puts came back to life, and with days left to expiration I sold them and went on vacation. That cost me a 50-1 payout," he growled.

"It's alright, I've gotten lucky plenty of times, move on, next," said Dawg, itching a torn ear from some old brawl. "Stocks trade like they're going parabolic for all the wrong reasons, like the Fed made a massive mistake, gave away too much free money." 1998/1999 raced through Bulldog's mind.