Pit

No, if it were Brad, it'd have two "t"s. This is pit. As in: the pendulum. It's a low place. The pits. The place at La Brea Tar where dinosaurs went to die. You do not want to be here.

But here we're talking finance, and in finance, a pit is a place where people work.

Specifically, it's part of a trading floor where the buying and selling actually takes place. You know how movies involving the stock market always include some b-roll footage of people yelling at each other at the exchange? Think: Wall Street, Trading Places, or The Wolf of Wall Street. Those people yelling at each other are standing in the pit.

Of course, much of today's trading takes place through computers. However, any live trading that occurs happens in the pit. Financial transactions as gladiatorial contest.