Arthur Jacobson Jr. talks about life on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Photographed by Bard Martin

On the corner where Wall Street meets Broad, it's a typical New York summer--so hot and muggy even the pigeons are sweating. Inside the concrete and stone temple housing the New York Stock Exchange, it's much cooler. Men of silk ties and iron stomachs calmly wait like hawks (not pigeons) for the opening 9:30 bell to ring. Another day, another $28 billion in trades.

Arthur L. Jacobson Jr. fits beautifully into this picture. In a tailored gray suit and cobalt blue shirt, the 1985 Marshall graduate strides with zen-like tranquility into the inner sanctum, a nest of computer terminals rising like futuristic mushrooms out of the ground. Passing a sea of traders who swim past him like salmon in multi-colored vests, he winds his way to the home port, the Benjamin Jacobson & Sons LLC trading post on the main floor. Established by his great-grandfather in 1930, Jacobson operates as a specialist firm on the NYSE. In simplest terms, they are auctioneers, bringing together buyers and sellers for about 90 companies on the exchange.

"It's my job to generate more business," the 35-year-old Jacobson explains. "We act as an agent and as principal, or dealer. The principal role comes in the absence of public buyers and sellers. We step up and buy and sell shares to keep stocks trading in an active role. Not to keep stocks from going up or down, but to add liquidity to the market. Our other major role is to act as an agent and execute orders for any member firm such as Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch."

Global investors know the Jacobson name. They represent famous companies with worldwide name recognition like United Technologies, Anheuser Busch, Allstate Insurance, Callaway Golf, the Kellogg cereal company, United Airlines, the Reader's Digest Association and the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. (A picture of Planet Hollywood shareholder and actress Demi Moore sitting next to Jacobson and his uncle, another partner in the firm, hangs from the Jacobson trading station.)

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