The PIt

The Pit: one of the most primitive, yet highly ritualized arenas of the financial world, The New York Board of Trade floor. Amidst the shouting and hand signals, the Pit is also a chaotic masterpiece of eye-to-eye trading. Through relationships built during her time as an NYBOT clerk, director Johanna Lee was given unprecedented access to the Pit, where she captured intense competition for survival, personal dramas and trading tickets.

However, the Pit has quickly become a casualty in the technology race, as electronic trading has come to dominate the market. As Lee follows the lives of several traders who were forced to either adapt or lose everything, personal and emotional stories unfold for a film that is relevant and compelling; an intimate portrait of men and women struggling to survive on one of the last platforms of pure capitalism and a unique snapshot of the American Dream.