“The environment has given banks a lot of good material to figure out who is really talented and motivated,” says Jessica Lee, a director at recruiting firm Options Group. “People just rose with the tides and got raises year after year.”

For those making a go of it alone after a lifetime on Wall Street, having strong relationships is just the start. Once on the outside, brokers who match buyers and sellers of, say, corporate debt can’t count on getting calls from clients eager for a slice of the next hot offering.

Lifestyle Adjustment

At the major investment banks, “a lot of salespeople thought the job was easy,” says Franco Mancini, an ex-Goldman Sachs broker who now works at Tradition, an independent bond shop. “Then they go out and realize that the minute you step into a brokerage firm, the phones stop ringing, completely.”

Many can’t hack it and eventually land in wealth management or move out of finance altogether, says TJM’s Murphy. And even if they’re willing to hustle and pick up the phone, success can often mean earning far less.

“People used to making $800,000 a year have a hard time adjusting down, their consumption changes, they have to sell their house, pull their kids out of private school,” he says. For those guys, “there’s not many opportunities. If you’re 55, the best you can do is turn on your computer and use Excel. You’re not programming algorithms.”

The difference between a good day and a bad one can be vanishingly small. In mid-September, Main lost a commission to a competitor who bested him on price by 0.0002 percentage point on 175,000 eurodollar contracts. Low volatility in recent years has compounded the problem, as fewer trades mean clients have time to eke out the lowest prices.

Adapt or Die

It’s hard to know what his future holds, Main says. Volume has come back in a big way since the presidential election in November, leading to TJM’s best month all year. The phones are ringing and trade commissions are up.

But it’s only a matter of time before eurodollar trading moves to screens as well. When that happens, the Chicago Board of Trade, a grand Art Deco landmark built in 1930, will see one of its last pits close. Main can’t say whether he wants to stick around after that. He might join one of his client’s firms or start a business outside finance.