Wall Street's most photographed trader: I beat coronavirus, and am ready to get back on the NYSE floor
Veteran New York Stock Exchange floor trader Peter Tuchman — long ago dubbed the most photographed person on Wall Street because of his Einstein-like white hair and facial expressions that seemingly appear in every investing story — is itching to get back to work.
It’s not as simple as saying Tuchman is cooped up at home like the rest of us and can’t get back to the trading floor because it’s closed right now amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Nope. Tuchman, 62, has spent the past several weeks battling the coronavirus and chronicling the fight on his Instagram and Twitter accounts (@EinsteinoWallSt).
“I’m definitely on the other side of Covid right now. There’s some collateral damage, but I am definitely on the mend,” Tuchman said on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade. “I was privileged and lucky to have an amazing group of doctors around me. I was lucky to be walked through the really dark points, when at three in the morning you would have a 103.7 temperature and you feel like you want to die and the doctors are telling you as long as you have the ability to breathe, stay home, you’re better off there. So those were the low points.”
Tuchman said the disease attacked nearly every part of his body and he was often disoriented. He had a fever for 10 days and developed meningitis on the back of his head. Tuchman took Tylenol for his fever and was given a Z-pack. Doctors also gave Tuchman controversial coronavirus treatment drug hydroxychloroquine, which is usually used to fight off malaria. But they advised Tuchman not to take it unless he entered respiratory distress given the side effects.
Despite the NYSE trading floor still being busy with outside visitors and traders, Tuchman has no fear of returning to work once the exchange reopens. He thinks the NYSE — led by president Stacey Cunningham — will employ strong COVID-19 testing and social distancing efforts to keep traders and employees safe.
“You know, for me it’s my home, my life,” said Tuchman.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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