An excellent article from The Epicurean Dealmaker this week linked right here. It's ostensibly about Goldman Sachs and its spokesman Lucas van Praag but don't let that put you off; it's far, far better than 99% of the tosh written about the vampire squid these days.
It also goes off on a few semi-sidebars. This one caught my attention in particular as it had me nodding and saying to myself "yup, that's why I'll never be a trader".
It also goes off on a few semi-sidebars. This one caught my attention in particular as it had me nodding and saying to myself "yup, that's why I'll never be a trader".
This is a trader's mentality. A trader never apologizes. A trader never admits he made a mistake. A trader never says he's sorry. To do so, in his mind, would be to admit weakness. Another trader could use such an admission against him in the next trade. By the same token, a trader never sits back and takes it. If someone attacks him, he attacks back, preferably in greater strength, to discourage similar attacks from his opponent or others in the future. Perceived weakness is blood in the water in trading, and it attracts other sharks.
At the same time, a trader understands that all other traders behave in the same fashion, and he should not take sharp elbows or direct attacks personally. After all, most trading is conducted among a relatively small number of firms, among a relatively small number of traders, all of whom know or know of each other. At the end of the day, you've gotta shrug off your wounds and bruises from the battles of today and get ready to trade with the same bunch of assholes tomorrow. No harm, no foul. No hard feelings.
Go read the note yourself, linked again just in case. Intelligent and educative.
h/t yves smith