The Saddest Story Every Blogged

The men on the trading floors of the nation's exchange -- and they are still largely men - tend to be an anonymous lot.

Except in times of market turmoil, when in photos on Web sites and in newspapers and magazine, they get to be the human face of a sell-off or a rally.

Lately, of course, it has been many sad, pained faces. And there is a photo blog devoted to them: Sad Guys on Trading Floors.

Sort of says it all, doesn't it?

The blog is a compilation of shots of traders holding their heads, making faces, starring vacantly, with smart-alecky captions underneath.

Yet while these men on the trading floors are physically in the center of the storm, they are relatively bit players in the financial tragedy.

For one, it is a credit crisis, not an equity crisis. It is the credit markets that are feeding the turmoil. And in any case, the major decisions on the stock market are made by institutional investors and hedge funds. The deep global slump in stocks this year will only further thin out the ranks of those who work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, ranks already eroded by the rise of electronic trading.

A photo blog that really gets at the heart of the financial crisis might consist of grainy shots of fired or humbled Wall Street executives being driven away in black town cars.

Or if this week's congressional hearings on Lehman Brothers and American International Group are any indication, a photo blog of executives testifying will be the truer visual catalog of the time.

And there are some who are hoping for C.E.O. perp walk photo opportunities in the not-so-distant future.