Lee Vandermolen and his colleagues look like ordinary tourists as they walk through Dublin's international airport.
But for the gas oil traders of KCM Energy the trip is no holiday; it is the first of many long-distance commutes that will determine whether or not their way of doing business survives.
The four men are open outcry traders and spend their days face-to-face with rivals, jostling for position in the crowded pit of London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE).
A day at the office goes by in a blur of multicoloured jackets, hand signals, and shouted orders.
Way of life
That is all set to change after the IPE ends open outcry trading on Thursday and switches to a fully electronic system of buying and selling oil and gas oil futures contracts.
The pit will be replaced by computer screens, and critics insist the changes are unnecessary and will lead to the loss of jobs.
"The screens will still be there in six months time"
"Trading volumes have been rising year after year," says Mr Vandermolen as he queues to go through passport control. "It's not as if the market isn't making money. Why fix it if it isn't broke?"
The open-outcry traders are not the type of people to take things lying down - just ask the Greenpeace activists who were left bloodied and bruised after a recent attempt to storm the IPE pit - and have promised to fight on.
At least 140 traders and market makers from London and the US, including Mr Vandermolen and his team, are planning to relocate to Dublin and work in a rival pit set up by the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).
Tough times?
The plan is simple - they want to show that there is still a strong demand for open outcry trading and then move back to London when Nymex gets regulatory approval for a new exchange in the capital.
"We will give it a go and if it works, we will continue with our way of life," Mr Vandermolen explained, sipping the cola he prefers to beer. "If it doesn't? Well, the screens will still be there in six months time."
There is no doubting the traders' commitment to the cause.
Mr Vandermolen and five other colleagues will be working shifts and sharing a two bedroom apartment, jetting back and forth between London and Dublin every five or three days.
Families will, for now, come second and for the six months they plan to be in Dublin the traders will not run their own accounts but instead pool their resources.
Working conditions are not going to be as plush as they were in London, especially after the IPE brought forward its plans to end open outcry.
In the lead up to Thursday's big change, there is a ramshackle feel to Nymex's Dublin trading pit, with panels missing from the ceiling and air conditioning vents snaking their silver way through a mass of wires.
Newly-arrived travel bags are dumped in corners, as their owners pick their way through computer equipment and head for the small trading floor.
'Stopgap'
"This feels just like what it is - a stopgap," says Mr Vandermolen.
Nymex says everything will be in place by Friday and that the exchange is ready to cope with the influx of traders from London and the US.
"I've seen worse pits," a Nymex official says after climbing out from underneath a desk. "Nothing is ever smooth, although you want it to be."
"If we get the volume, we should be OK."
Nymex's Dublin exchange will offer two main contracts - one for Brent crude oil, the benchmark for most of the world's oil traders, and one for gas oil, which is essentially the same as diesel and heating fuel.
Despite all the optimism that demand is there and assurances from clients that they will still choose the human face instead of the computer screen, there are concerns that not enough business will come through the exchange.
Critical mass
To keep liquidity and interest up, Nymex is offering expenses of roughly $1,000 a week per person.
They also are offering to pay a stipend of as much as $100,000 a month to market makers - those firms or people willing to buy and sell to keep things ticking over.
That may seem a lot of cash, but in a volatile and illiquid market where getting in and out of positions is difficult, that money can be gone in the blink of an eye.
With the closure of the IPE in London looming, business in Dublin is quiet.
Traders stroll in and out of the pit, making offers, calling out bids, though significant activity is limited to sporadic, albeit noisy, flurries.
Talk often turns to the subject of who, and how many others, will turn up on Friday, the bravado of the pit unable to cover up the concerns about what the next few months will hold.
"Of course we'd rather be in London," one KCM Energy trader admits. "No one likes to leave their family behind, but what else can we do?
"I've been doing this almost all my working life. It's what I know. I don't fancy sitting in front of a computer in an office."
Those decamping to Dublin are betting that their clients also will prefer the human touch and are expecting volumes to jump after Thursday.
The outcome is difficult to call, but one thing is certain; no matter what happens, the traders are not going to go quietly.
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