Exactly why I trade..got tired of having other people involved in order to make my living. Now I rely on myself only for my mistakes and accomplishments.. TraderX64
Consider the futures or other pit trader in an open outcry market. His job constantly entail convincing other market makers that he is long when he is short, or that he's arbing when its really a client order. Things are different for us day traders, but in a 'real' market (real since manipluating bids and offers dont clutter up L2 screens) communication and deception are the name of the game. In a sense, they are as well on the L2 screens, but communicated in a very impersonal electronic inhuman way. SB
Not only that, but MM's (especially futures arb.) often call eachother after close to 'even out'overnight positions, all the while trying to protect their proprietary positions, clients and client orders. Read Nick Leeson's book for a good insight about MM psychology and deception among each other.
Though we obviously aren't specialists, there's this: ---<font size=1>Specialist Robert Scavone in The Supertraders, p 54</font> My personal approach is to understand how the markets really work, and they are really social phenomena.
silver, you nailed that one down. People will always be involved when money is to be exchanged for profit or loss. However, trading is the only profession that allows one to do this without actual verbal dialogue on a daily basis.
Thunder, Yeah, you are exactly right as well. I just wanted to discern between the interactions that us Day traders make (minimal verbal) and that of institutional traders (even the complex hand signals). Thats part of the reason I am a trader... not having to deal with the communicative bullshit inherent in the financial industry.
There ya go! Not having to rely and others... live and die by your own accomplishments and failures. It's not a game for those that put the blame elsewhere. That's the problem with "team player" kind of jobs... if you're good, a lot of your effort is spent pulling the lesser players along. If you're not as good, you depend on other players to get you through.
There is no doubt about this. Very much social phenomena. I wonder who social statiticians would do in this job. But that's social in the overall group sense. You don't depend on anyone specific, just the beast as a whole.
Institutional traders are in a totally different world. They have to deal with other people in a big way. They have bosses to report to. They have to make their numbers look good for the financial rags if they are at that level. They have to look good to their bosses to keep their jobs. Even though their year-end bonuses may be determined by their performance, they have to depend on their bosses to give it to them (just ask any trader why no one goes to another company on January 1st - they are afraid of losing their rightfully earned bonus). This is definitely not like the independent electronic trader.