--- description: Sure, the economy is in crisis mode and the U.S. has probably entered a recession, but at least we can make fun of the suits... title: Sad Guys on Trading Floors image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28414b87bfd1769e/698a499bb21a9c02d7508a34/360_sad_guys_1022.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) # Sad Guys on Trading Floors by [Claire Suddath](/author/claire-suddath/) Oct 23, 2008 4:00 AM CUT  A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008. A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008.Richard Drew / AP by [Claire Suddath](/author/claire-suddath/) Oct 23, 2008 4:00 AM CUT Sure, the economy is in crisis mode and the U.S. has probably entered a recession, but at least we can make fun of the suits who made it happen. Or who watched it happen. Or who were powerless to stop it. That’s why [ Sad Guys on Trading Floors ](https://sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com "undefined") is such a hit (and why TIME ran [something similar](https://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1849374%5F1779304,00.html "undefined") a few weeks ago). The website’s humor relies on the old adage that people making faces are funny. There’s [Guy With Face On Phone](https://data.tumblr.com/bLjlTcuJUex7elsq6PwwDQyYo1%5F400.jpg "undefined"), [Guy About To Be Sick](https://data.tumblr.com/bLjlTcuJUex41kn25QfVpjbHo1%5F400.jpg "undefined") and, [Guy Who Doesn’t Understand Why This Keeps Happening to Him](https://data.tumblr.com/bLjlTcuJUews74myoFuagdueo1%5F400.png "undefined"). The witty captions at the bottom of each photo turn the site from a simple picture gallery into the white collar equivalent of [Lolcats](https://icanhascheezburger.com/ "undefined"). The website’s archives go back to Oct. 7 and new photos of depressed traders are posted every day. Sad Guys on Trading Floors even comes with its own snarky, self-aware tagline: “Turning the economic crisis into one of those clever Internet memes.” Too bad memes can’t help insure a mortgage. Sad Guys on Trading Floors ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6904750/sad-guys-on-trading-floors/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6904750/sad-guys-on-trading-floors/"},"headline":"Sad Guys on Trading Floors","datePublished":"2008-10-23T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:43:16.000Z","description":"Sure, the economy is in crisis mode and the U.S. has probably entered a recession, but at least we can make fun of the suits...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6904750/sad-guys-on-trading-floors/","keywords":["Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28414b87bfd1769e/698a499bb21a9c02d7508a34/360_sad_guys_1022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Claire Suddath","url":"https://time.com/author/claire-suddath/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28414b87bfd1769e/698a499bb21a9c02d7508a34/360_sad_guys_1022.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"360_sad_guys_1022.jpg","caption":"A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008.","creditText":"Richard Drew / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6904750/sad-guys-on-trading-floors/","name":"Sad Guys on Trading Floors"}}]}] ```