The Discipline of the Speculator
From Caitlin Zaloom
Department of Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley
There are four core elements of discipline:
First, traders separate their actions on the trading floor from their lives outside;
Second, they control the impact of loss;
Third traders learn to breakdown the continuities between past, present and future trades, by dismantling narratives of success or failure;
Fourth, they create a stance of acute alertness in the present moment.