This article in the WSJ was kind of shocking to me: because rates haven't been raised since June of 2006, many prominent traders have not seen a rate hike in the entire tenure of their career. That is not normal. Because keeping interest rates at near zero is not normal! Yes, there is global economic turmoil, but doesn't nearly interest free debt lead to misplaced capital? Isn't that one of the primary reasons we ENTERED a recession?
But I digress. I wanted to keep it light this Monday night. I simply wanted to point out that it amuses me how much traders have changed in the last 9 years. A decade ago, we had your Wolf of Wall Streetesque trader: Suit, tie, Blackberry, credit (ah), mortgage back securities (AHHH). Today, we have iPhone touting, Citibike riding, exchange-traded funds traders whose risks namely include interest rates and liquidity and who operate under the auspices of federal regulation. I gotta say, I like the guy on the right better. But are traders today more grounded to reality and more closely tethered to prudent risk taking bounds than traders of the past? Sure, maybe. Or is it simply draconian oversight, grossly absent in the leadup to the 2009 recession, that has prevented people from taking what they can get by any falsifying, embezzling, speculating means possible?
Nothing against traders. I wanted to be one myself. It's just interesting to muse on the stereotypes.
But I digress. I wanted to keep it light this Monday night. I simply wanted to point out that it amuses me how much traders have changed in the last 9 years. A decade ago, we had your Wolf of Wall Streetesque trader: Suit, tie, Blackberry, credit (ah), mortgage back securities (AHHH). Today, we have iPhone touting, Citibike riding, exchange-traded funds traders whose risks namely include interest rates and liquidity and who operate under the auspices of federal regulation. I gotta say, I like the guy on the right better. But are traders today more grounded to reality and more closely tethered to prudent risk taking bounds than traders of the past? Sure, maybe. Or is it simply draconian oversight, grossly absent in the leadup to the 2009 recession, that has prevented people from taking what they can get by any falsifying, embezzling, speculating means possible?
Nothing against traders. I wanted to be one myself. It's just interesting to muse on the stereotypes.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/ahead-of-the-fed-young-bankers-wrestle-with-a-novel-notion-interest-rates-that-rise-1442395980?mod=e2tw
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