By the time Jeffrey Frankel got to bed it was past midnight, but sleep did not come easy.

Twice during the night, the broker had climbed out from the covers and returned to the television, trying to get a read on what investors were thinking in Tokyo and Hong Kong and to see what the futures market foretold about the trading day ahead.

Now, the digital board hanging over the New York Stock Exchange's maple hardwood floor showed 9:24 a.m.

Six minutes left until the open.

But in one corner of the trading floor, brokers for Stuart Frankel & Co. had been at their stations for more than 2 1/2 hours. Frankel, president of the company founded by his father, had been on the floor since 8, working the phones, swigging coffee, 'trying to get ready for what seems to be getting whacked in the head every day.'