Every firm has their own story about how they handled the news Monday about Lehman filing for bankruptcy and Merrill being purchased by Bank of America. One buy-side trader shared his story with me, but asked to remain anonymous.

The trader said that he and the other traders on his desk came in on Monday morning somewhat prepared. They had all received an email from their head trader on Sunday. The email asked that they come to work early on Monday in light of the news that was progressing over the weekend. First thing Monday morning, a staff meeting was held. The trader said, "We had a meeting this [Monday] morning and we talked about the broad implications of both events. We talked about how there were human beings involved and the need to be sensitive to that," he said.

He added that they were all told that they have a job to do despite the turmoil and that there would likely be a great deal of questions—questions from portfolio managers on market conditions and questions from clients regarding what this might mean to the future of the business.

The trader said how the day played out had a lot to do with how trading management handled it. He felt his manager did exactly what needed to be done to quell fears and to keep business running smoothly and to preempt any potential problems.

He added, "We also discussed the need to be communicative, sensitive, professional and judicious with the spreading of rumors." [There had been rumors about Lehman Brothers for months prior to its bankruptcy---damaging its repution and hurting its stock price. These rumors ultimately could have played a part in its downfall.]

The trader added, "Things went smoothly for us because we are well run and we have someone who sat us down and talked us through everything."