If you have a pulse and own a stock, The Washington Post points out, you probably have seen Peter Tuchman’s face. But a household name he isn’t.

The 60-year-old trader is perhaps the most iconic face of The New York Stock Exchange – and the US stock-markets – as the trader’s Einstein-y look can be relied upon as a real-time indicator of sentiment – be it anguish, anticipation, desperation, or triumph.

Tuchman is without doubt the most photographed person at The NYSE.

“The floor of NYSE is the greatest office on Earth. It has energy, people. These are hallowed floors. It’s 120 years old, and every president, every head of state, celebrities have walked this floor. What goes on on this floor will affect world finance on a daily basis. And I’m in the middle of it. I love that. And once my face became what it’s become, I love that part of it, too.”

What does Tuchman do?

“I am the eyes and ears and the conduit for trading and point of sale of buying and selling stocks for customers.

It’s very simple. If Grandma in Kentucky wants to buy 100 shares of XYZ company, she calls a broker at Charlie Schwab, Merrill Lynch or JPMorgan and says, “I want to buy 100 shares of XYZ.” The broker generates the order. It gets sent to a machine on the floor of the NYSE. That machine will route the order to me as a broker into my handheld, which I then route to the market maker and the order enters into the public market. I don’t have to talk to a person.

Electronic markets are all fine and good, to a point. What makes what I do so powerful and meaningful and still so important is the human factor on the floor of the stock exchange.

We have brokers, human beings, market makers, the human safety net set in place to protect against unruly volatility, artificial intelligence. People see us here and they know a human being is watching over their money and their market. That’s what makes a difference. That’s why I’m still here.”