Quote Junkie

I came across this amusing bit on the Alexa site by Geoffrey Mack:

JANUARY 24, 2006 - Posted By Geoffrey Mack

A lifetime ago I used to work at Charles Schwab in tech support for their revolutionary online trading program the Equalizer (revolutionary... see, I still speak the language of the kool-aid drinkers.) Anyway, Schwab had this group of users that we referred to as "quote junkies." The junkies would call all hours of the day getting stock quotes, jamming up the lines and probably drinking way too much caffeine. They had to have their quotes... now! Schwab actually closed some accounts and eventually put all customers on quote quotas. When a QJ exceeded his quota it was cold turkey time. No quotes. A bunch of customers went absolutely bonkers and began calling any Schwab number they could find to beg, borrow, bribe or steal a quote. Sometimes it felt like I was running a methadone clinic.

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm a quote junkie... Yes, I'm one of those folks that check site stats, usage and other little numerical bits to monitor how things are going. I'm getting better though.