Sell! Buy! Duck!

Latin Trade, April, 2005 by Bill Hinchberger

Investors are sometimes accused of seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. But take the tour of Sao Paulo's major stock exchange, the Bovespa, and 3-D glasses are what you are asked to don.

Jose Luiz Sanches, a former pit trader, slides up to the microphone at the podium, front and center, below the electronic board, to announce the main attraction--a three-dimensional documentary about the stock market and how it works. As the movie starts, a Carnavalesque ox costume from the bumba-meu-boi festival in Maranhao illustrates one of Bovespa's "social investment" schemes.

With the growing dominance of electronic trading, the pit trader has become an endangered species. Over 1,000 populated the Bovespa floor a decade ago; they're numbers have dropped to under a hundred. The Bovespa is capitalizing on the pit's clubby allure with weekend "Bolsa Aberta" programs, designed to transform the pit into a financial journey of discovery.

Former floor traders like Sanches, together with current brokers and representatives of listed companies like mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, stand by to answer questions. "I was curious," says tourgoer Carlos Alberto D'Annibale. "I knew about all the craziness. Now I understand a little about how it works."

During the first 35 days of Bolsa Aberta, some 12,000 folks like Carlos Alberto put on their 3-D glasses in the pit. Leading Brazilian tourism agencies like Andancas and CVC have begun to include the Bovespa on their weekend downtown circuit. "People come from all income groups, from AAA to Z. Many have little sense of how things work, but they are very interested," said Alice Bueno Moraes, a broker with Novoinvest.