Shrinking Bond Desks Taken by Journeymen as Masters Fade

It was the profession that inspired Sherman McCoy in the novel “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” In the 1980s, the excitement in the trading room, with hundreds of people talking on the phone, was palpable, like a sporting event, said Kerry Stein, head of credit trading at Lloyds Securities Inc.

Those days are gone.