Celebration of life, from Duncan Coker
Hey friends. This has been a hard week and difficult to fully accept. So many things to write about Victor, but I'll pick just one small part to bring some levity and that is his sense of humor. Vic had a wicked sense of humor. It comes across particularly is his coded language and his voice that always carried a 40s Brooklyn accent. Here are a few that tickle me: "pretty kettle of fish", "gentlemen and ladies heal thyself", "haaaaaave" (for half), "fish dinner", "brisket at the petroleum club", "not bad for a poor speculator", "Ha!" (as a trade fills), "Mr. Coke", the tennis balls raining down on the roof, "Let's go for a walk". This last one really hits, I'll forever be taking walks with Victor and listening.
Steve Ellison responds:
The Chair’s invitation in 2004 to “join our group of scholars” changed the trajectory of my life. I treasure the many friendships I have from this List and have numerous anecdotes about Victor, but for the sake of brevity, I will confine myself to two instances from the economically depressed year of 2009.
In May that year, I went to a West Coast mini-Spec Party in honor of Kenny Sogi’s graduation from USC. The event was held at a beach house in Los Angeles County where James Tar was living. At some point, we decided to call the Chair in New York. For some reason, the most suitable phone for a conference call was in Mr. Tar’s car, so 12 of us jammed into the car to talk with the Chair. After we all identified ourselves, Victor asked, “What do you think of the market?”
One person after another in the car outlined his reasons for being bearish. After 5 or 6 people had had their say, maybe Victor was getting tired of the bearishness because he called on me by name. “Steve, you’re bullish, right?” I said that I was and cited a few findings from my counting studies.
In August that year, I went to New York for the smallest Spec Party I ever attended, I think between 20 and 30 people. While we were gathered in Victor’s living room, he asked us whether using stops was good practice. The conversation that followed, with everybody participating, was pure gold, a meal for multiple lifetimes.
Comments
Vince Fulco on August 13, 2026 6:05 pm
This post surfaces memories of getting into the trading room at 7:00-7:15 a.m. and either seeing Vic at the desk or evidence he’d been there for hours (always with the hot tea with lemon and/or english muffins with butter). Every single day he was in town. I’ve never met someone so dedicated to his craft under calm and/or chaotic times. Jiro Ono, from Jiro dreams of Sushi is the only example which comes to mind in recent years.