Information is the greatest commodity on Wall Street. It’s traded infinitely more than stocks and bonds. All investment decisions are made using it (I hope). Sure, there’s some gut instinct thrown in there for good measure. But overall, every buy and sell ticket has some information and analysis behind it. And the way in which information is being provided and consumed on Wall Street is ever-evolving.

Look no further than recent history to see how the use of technology has changed the flow of information in the financial industry. In the 1990s, the Internet was taking hold, and it brought with it both opportunity and fear. The world around Wall Street began to speed up. Trades that used to take five days were settled in three, and the ability to communicate and obtain information exploded. The advent of Internet technology and e-mail leveled the playing field for many investors.

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As I inched my Honda Civic up Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, I checked my phone…

Who am I meeting with again? Oh yeah, Michael.

He had sent me an e-mail mentioning writing a book, my sobriety, and that he’d worked on Wall Street for years. He asked if we could meet and I agreed. I parked my car and walked to our meeting spot, a coffee shop a few blocks over. As soon as I entered he spotted me and we shook hands.

Michael Kimelman looked successful: clean haircut, well-dressed, and well-mannered. We found a table near the front, and immediately started playing the “Wall Street name game,” connecting on several peers.

If this were a gameshow, we’d have advanced to the next round. We knew a lot of the same people, and although we’d never actually met, we joked about being at the same party and pushing each other out of the way for a drink. And then…

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I remember from back when I was a hedge-fund trader in 2004, shopping for my first apartment with a $3 million budget. I was looking for something with the “it” factor. So, I bought a 2,200 square foot open loft that had a Jacuzzi room that fit eight people, with multiple shower heads on the ceiling, a drainage floor and a vapor-proof steam shower door.

Watching the Dow — and real-estate prices — go up every day, it made me wonder: What are the hot new amenities buyers are looking for in New York right now? So, I reached out to several Wall Street professionals and “Million Dollar Listing” star Ryan Serhant.

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Success seems so easy to some people, perhaps it’s because they make it simple

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Usually when you hear about the rich and famous buying a mountain or a private island, it’s with the idea that 1) it’s a status symbol and 2) you can resell it later on and, hopefully, make a profit.

But who would just drop a huge sum of money to rent a mountain?

My friend, Jesse Itzler.

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You can’t call him old money or new money. He’s really more “experience money.”

I had a great time on this podcast with Jared Dillian – We talked about the creative process, writing and the business of books. We also caught up a little bit on Wall Street and the good old days… http://monthlydirtcast.libsyn.com/tmd-episode-9-turney-duff