I didn't see this posted yet? --------------------------------------------------------- LAID-OFF TRADERS ARE NOW SHRINK RAPT By JOHN AIDAN BYRNE http://www.nypost.com/seven/1126200...now_shrink_rapt_business_john_aidan_byrne.htm November 26, 2006 -- Wall Street traders - traumatized by mass layoffs as electronic trading replaces humans - are beginning to seek help from psychologists, their colleagues and doctors tell The Post. Appointments at shrinks' offices for pros recently tossed aside by super-fast, more cost-efficient trading computers, are on the rise, they said. "Traders are now going to psychologists - of course they are," said Howard Lasher, a veteran trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, watching downcast traders head for the exits at neighboring NYSE. "What's the choice?" Dr. Ari Kiev, best-selling author of several books on the psychology of trading - he taught his groundbreaking strategies to billionaire hedge fund trader Steve Cohen - admits he has seen several traders recently due to unemployment trauma. "Some traders would talk to me about those kind of issues," he told The Post. "They could be clinically depressed or suffering from a phobic disorder." Dr. Kiev, who refined the motivational techniques for traders he pioneered as the first psychiatrist on the U.S. Olympic Sports Medicine Council, said his aim is to get pink-slipped pros back in the game. "If the trader has made money, then the issue is finding some meaningful occupation or activity," he says. The exchange floor pros, for instance, are getting the boot in droves at LaBranche & Co., Van der Moolen and other floor firms - raising anxiety to mentally disturbing new highs. But some traders say the emotional troubles run deeper than money. "When traders read about massive bonuses, the leveraged buyouts and the millions of dollars changing hands, it just compounds their depression," says an alarmed Lasher. Kiev says traders need a strong stomach for uncertainty. "You've got be able to able to live with failure and loss in order to succeed," he adds. Meanwhile, on the NYSE floor, one trader says the place is becoming like a ghost town as old buddies pack a few sentimental belongings - like photos from the Christmas party - into a bag and then leave the building for the last time. "Nobody smiles and jokes around like they did in the past," he said. __________________ Please, I'm not a daytrader, I'm an "Intraday Liquidity Provider" 1-888-TRADEUP
These are "market makers" - and they no longer have their time/place advantage. Their former profits are now in the pockets of real traders. This is rationalization at work.
But the market will never be a Charity. That means that somewhere, someone has THE edge. Nothing that profitable is ever democratic. In every other big business someone has a legal or illegal edge (other profitable businesses that come to mind: oil, arms, drugs, diamonds, etc) I think that the merger and lack of competition that is occuring with the equity and options exchanges/ECNs is done to squeeze out people, and to develop a better edge for those who run the show.
i don`t feel sorry for those crooks in the least,they`re fortunate they`re not behind bars where they belong.....good riddance!
if they had seats they cashed out very nicely. anyway it is an ill wind that blows no good. psychiatrists have been in their own bear marke for a long time. now it is their turn to enjoy their own bull market