Anonymous on the Web? Yeah, Take a Report

In the annals of unsympathetic victims, former Citigroup trader Michael J. McCarthy ranks pretty high.

Apparently not content with a conventional Red Bull addiction or phone throwing as outlets for his job stress, McCarthy had been moonlighting as a blogger, writing www.takeareport.com under the pseudonym "Large."

TAR has nothing to do with trading, or finance it all, although "take a report" is trader slang meaning "you're done" or "get out of my face." It's McCarthy's mildly clever catch phrase on the blog, made far less so by its relentless appearance in post after post after post.

TAR is mostly a collection of lascivious, greaseball comments about scantily clad actresses and models, crass and vicious tirades against minor celebrities and random strangers for being overweight or unattractive, and oh yes, a particularly sickening invective against H.I.V. stricken Magic Johnson for his weight these days.

McCarthy, no doubt a genuine Adonis himself, announced on his blog earlier this month that he had been fired by Citigroup; what we hadn't realized until now was that his slip up was in taking a speaking engagement at a trading convention.

Thanks to Wall Street's Maoist approach to I.T, and the frequent cannings of low-level bankers and traders for email and internet related infractions, those in the industry are oversensitive to the dangers lurking within their laptops and BlackBerries.

McCarthy made sure to never reveal his name or his employer on TAR, and according the Silicon Alley Insider, even went so far as to forward his posts to a friend to upload them.

But for all the caution over being incognito on the internet, McCarthy didn't stop and think that his actions OFF the computer could actually get back to his employer. D'oh!

The only thing possibly more mind-blowing than McCarthy's blunder may be the Dallas Trading Convention's decision to offer him a keynote speech in the first place. McCarthy calls this "BY FAR the best of all the trading conventions," continuing, "I think the last 2 speakers were a former Secretary of Energy and then the CEO of some big power company, so obviously having me come in is indication that at the very least they are starting to go in a different (possibly better?) direction."

We're no experts on the hierarchy of trader get-togethers (thank God), but the fact that the Dallas Trading Convention actually decided to offer a podium to McCarthy on the basis of TAR is fairly damning of the entire affair. The blog is not only incredibly offensive, but demonstrates no knowledge of trading besides the signature "take a report" slogan. Presumably, when contacting "Large" about speaking, the Dallas Trading Convention didn't even know where he worked, what position he held, or whether in fact he knew anything about trading besides the one piece of slang.

McCarthy is currently collecting unemployment and posting several times a day to TAR, while exploring his options for re-employment. Our suggestion? Take a report, Michael.

Liz Gunnison