09/11/2026
On this anniversary of September 11, I wanted to share a personal memory from that day and a lesson it continues to teach us about resilience, risk, and investing.
I was 24 years old and working on a trading desk for Wells Fargo in San Francisco. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was getting ready for work when I turned on the television and saw reports that a plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers.
I woke up my roommate, and together we watched events unfold in real time. A short while later, I boarded a bus to downtown San Francisco. The bus was full, but almost completely silent. This was long before smartphones, and no one seemed to know exactly what was happening or what would come next.
When I arrived at the trading desk, the atmosphere was surreal. The usual noise of ringing phones and market activity had been replaced by an eerie silence. People sat staring at screens, trying to reach friends and colleagues in New York.
One of the senior traders on our desk had been speaking with a trading partner at Cantor Fitzgerald when the first plane struck the North Tower. The call suddenly disconnected. He spent the rest of the morning trying unsuccessfully to reconnect. Later, we learned that he, along with hundreds of his colleagues at Cantor had been among those who lost their lives that day.
The markets never opened on September 11. When they reopened six days later, stocks fell sharply as investors grappled with shock and uncertainty. But beyond the immediate market impact, 9/11 exposed a vulnerability that few had considered: so much of the financial system was concentrated in one physical location.
In the years that followed, Wall Street, the exchanges, and financial institutions invested heavily in backup systems, redundancy, electronic trading, and disaster recovery planning. Markets became far less dependent on a single building or city.
Ironically, addressing that physical vulnerability created a new challenge. As markets became increasingly digital and interconnected, the focus shifted from protecting against physical disruption to protecting against cyber disruption. Today, one of the most significant threats discussed by regulators, exchanges, and financial institutions is the potential impact of a large-scale cyberattack on critical market infrastructure. The vulnerability has evolved, but the need to prepare for the unexpected remains the same.
The risks may look different today than they did 25 years ago, but one thing hasn't changed: uncertainty is part of investing. Time and again, markets have demonstrated an extraordinary ability to adapt, recover, and move forward.
Today, I remember those who lost their lives, the families forever changed, and the resilience that followed.
Where were you on September 11, 2001?
- Jessica Dillon
