Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to LondonFrom New York to Singapore, from Chicago to London, the trading floors of the world’s financial markets are icons of global capitalism. Images of them are used on the news all the time—traders burying their heads in their hands when the market is down, their arms flailing in a frenzy when fortunes are rising—to convey the current state of the economy. But these marketplaces, and the cultural life that sustains them, are dissolving into the ether of the digital age: powerful financial institutions are shutting down the trading pits, replacing face-to-face exchanges with an electronic network where traders sit, face to screen, finger to mouse, and compete in a global arena made up of digits and charts. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION Finance from the Floor | 1 |
CHAPTER ONE Materials of the Market | 15 |
CHAPTER TWO Trapped in the Pits | 51 |
CHAPTER THREE Social Experiments in London Markets | 73 |
CHAPTER FOUR The Work of Risk | 93 |
CHAPTER FIVE Economic Men | 111 |
CHAPTER SIX The Discipline of the Speculator | 127 |
CHAPTER SEVEN Ambiguous Numbers | 141 |
CONCLUSION Practical Experiments | 161 |
NOTES | 179 |
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217 | |
Other editions - View all
Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London Caitlin Zaloom No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
References to this book
The Currency of Justice: Fines and Damages in Consumer Societies Pat O'Malley No preview available - 2009 |