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Why Do You Work on Wall Street?
- "Every dream has its price"
That
is, besides the the women, the parties (Models & bottles baby!),
all the other trappings of wealth and "life in the fast lane."
Earlier today I switched the channel from CNBC over to AMC to watch
the last ~40 minutes of Wall Street, a movie that I, like many of you,
have seen well over a dozen times.
I can't remember the first time I saw it, but it was probably around
late high school or early college, but that's really besides the
point. Every time I, like many of you, watched the movie I get pumped
up and excited, but until today I never really thought about why. I
don't mean excited about the plot twists, the story, or any of that,
its more complicated, or maybe actually more simple than that.
I,
like I imagine many of you, have always been a bit of an achiever. I
was never the smartest kid in AP or Honors classes nor the best athlete
on the soccer or lacrosse field, but with hard work, a little bit of
luck, and some natural gifts, I've always been relatively successful.
I, like I also imagine many of you, did not grow up wanting to be an
investment banker or hedge fund manager; until probably half-way
through high school, I studied computer science and dreamed of starting
my own tech company.
So, what happened? I'd been following markets and recommending
trades to my dad since before my Bar Mitzvah and over the next few
years, I witnessed the frenzy that eventually led to the tech bubble.
We had a Finance/Investment club in high school of which I was one of
the founders where we held an annual virtual investment contest. I
remember quite vividly presenting my rationale for buying Corning (GLW)
as flat-screen monitors were set to take the world by storm. Oddly
enough, I recently got an email from Marketocracy, one of the sites we
used over a decade ago for our investment competitions. One of the
portfolios I set up held Corning and other former tech sweethearts.
When I set it up, I'd named it "Ultra High Risk Fund" or something
along those lines, since I wasn't totally drinking the Kool-Aid. Fast
forward a decade and its NAV is finally back above what it was at
inception. Impressive, eh?
For the remainder of high school and through college I planned on
working in Venture Capital, what I thought (and still do to some
extent) would be a combination of my love of both science/technology
and finance. By senior year I was applying for jobs in not just VC but
Investment Banking and Research, and eventually landed my first gig in
the Investment Bank of one of the large global financial supermarkets.
So that's how I flipped over to the "dark side," so to speak. Now,
what does this have to do with Wall Street, the movie? While I was
watching the latter parts of the film earlier today, it finally dawned
on me, the real allure of working on Wall Street.
For me, and I imagine many of you, it wasn't all about the "Models & Bottles"
(although that certainly helps!). It was - and to some degree still is
- about the (quasi-)intellectual aspect(s) of the job. It's about
busting your ass and working not just harder but SMARTER than the other
guy and winning the proverbial game. That's what its all about,
winning. That's what it really means to be "living the dream:"
outsmarting the competition and, if you do it long enough, getting rich
as hell in the process.
Of course, back in the realm of reality, Wall Street employs vastly
more people in roles where this dream is still just that. There really
aren't that many hedge fund or private equity titans out there,
although there certainly isn't any shortage of those aspiring to become
one. Certainly the advances in technology over the past 20 or so years
have allowed people to trade in virtually any market for their own
accounts (or even OPM) from anywhere in the World, but titans the vast
majority of these traders are not.
As much as those of us who work 'in Finance" are vilified by the
media and "Main Street" - much of it our own fault - deep down, within
most or dare I say all of us lies some inklining of enjoyment of the
(quasi-)intellectual aspect of the job, however repressed or forgotten
it may be. For many, it really may be all about the money and
everything you can do with it, but in the ultimate analysis, how many
people stick around for 10, 20, 30+ years of working lunatic hours with
other lunatics if they're not even remotely interested in the work?
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There is no "winning" or "losing", merely perspective. Conditioning, ego and karma create perspective. Until one becomes self aware, one is pushed and pulled in the direction that their desires (for "winning" or "money" or whatever) drag them.Perspective remains, ultimate reality (non-duality) lies hidden.
I don't think you deserve the slaughtering you are receiving here Anal_yst, you sound like a decent fella. I think your journey of self exploration is in its infancy, perhaps not even down the birthing canal yet. But the seed has been planted, and this is a good thing.
The one thing I would suggest being very, very aware of, is simply this: is what you are doing every day additive or subtractive from society? I don't ask for a "perspective" on this, I ask you to make this part of your journey of self exploration to really figure out the truth here. Are you a plus or a minus?
The money your industry kin make during the day to day, sure it may put Muffy in the nail salon 24/7 or Jimmy through Harvard, but in doing so how much has this person hollowed out, how much erosion have they caused, in the foundation of the society in which they live and in which little Jimmy will grow into? What is really being taught, passed down, here? Is this teaching additive? Too many people in the industry use the "I do it for my family" line, I call bullshit on this line every time. What are you doing for your society, and will the actions that you profess to be so noble in light of your family's needs ultimately contribute to the destruction of society as a whole, that which is much, much more important than one family.
Most workers in the NY finance industry are big minuses during a work day, I know this. Many lead shitty personal and family lives, most are unaware of what they are doing to society now and in the future during their day to day extraction, most lack any semblance of situational awareness, compassion is absent more often than not. Many have not the time (as you mention, they work long hours) to contribute ANYTHING that may benefit anyone bar themselves and their slave masters.
So, good luck to you. Just keep this question top of mind: plus or minus?
Wow. Well said, Steve.
QUIT NOW BEFORE YOU DIE AND REALIZE YOU WERE a SESSPOOL SLAVE SENT TO DESTORY YOUR NEIGHBORS
Trust me , you do not impresse anyone with a bit of a brain by being a bit smarter than another dude in finance . Real smart people are found in mathematics and physics . There you have difficult problems . End of discussion . Those people also make a real and lasting contribution to humanity .
Jealousy, that's why you went to work on Wall St.
You weren't actually better than any of your classmates at anything. And it always bothered you, petty scumbag that you are.
But you could still be richer than your classmates. At least your name could be on the top of the dollar scoreboard.
You went to work in finance because you were jealous of your classmates' superior athletic, intellectual, social and moral qualities.
Fortunately for you, the remuneration in finance is wildly out of step with the actual value you provide. Perfect!
Fucking parasite.
If you want to use high school, depending on which proxy you want to use, I was in the 95th-98th percentile academically. Athletically, at least two teams I played on were state-ranked and out of school teams won national gold medals (one of which I was a captain for). Not sure how you want to measure social/moral qualities/success but considering I write about financial literacy and education for free and I've never been charged with financial wrong-doing (nor have I engaged in any), not sure how you can accuse me of being a scumbag.
But yea, continue to jump to completely inane conclusions based upon absolutely zero facts what-so-ever.
"I was never the smartest kid in AP or Honors classes nor the best athlete on the soccer or lacrosse field" ..?
So you were captain of a national gold-medal team but never once stepped on the field as the best player?
98th percentile but never the smartest kid in the room? All your classes had more than a hundred kids in them, I guess.
You need to work on your self-awareness. Find out who you are. This article and your subsequent defenses show you're really not sure about much.
On the one hand the whole article is supposed to be about your epiphany that "That's what it's all about, winning" and "getting rich as hell in the process".
But wait, no, on the other hand, it was the 'quasi-intellectual' aspects of the job. It's because you're such an intellectual, that's really why you guys work those long hours on Wall Street, is that it now?
Listen, if you would acknowledge that your industry extracts far more value from the economy than it contributes, and you said you're sorry, you didn't know, you got caught up in the competition and the intellectual stimulation, then I'll be the first to say 'I forgive you, let's work together to make this right'.
But you've never said that.
Instead you've tried to rationalize your offences in the most self-aggrandizing manner possible.
You've just written an apology for parasites without ever saying you're sorry.
I think you should go 'donate' this bullshit to the 'financial literacy' 'charities' to which you are such a generous benefactor.
Modern bankers are all parasites. Does that mean you're a bad person? Not necessarily. Does that mean you have bad/evil intentions? Again, not necessarily. You tell yourself you went because of the "intellectual challenge" - I'm skeptical. Theoretical physics, laboratory work, teaching children, painting, socializing - all these skills can challenge a person intellectually. Many of them are as highly competitive. But they don't pay as well. Also, with banking you have a quantitative SCORE - which is appealing only if you need an intellectual crutch to determine your placement in the competition. We need hardworking, smart people in the productive sectors of the economy. Stay away from Government (banking is basically a quasi-government/government subsidized industry) and you'll be alright.... think about it.
Isn't a love of finance the same thing as a love of money? The way this article started I thought it was going to be a confessional, but it ended up like something we spend 300 posts making fun of.
A love of finance is absolutely not a love of money; that is a massive non-sequitur propagated by those who know little or nothing about finance/economics.
I stand corrected, not the first time I have experienced a massive non-sequitur. It has just been my experience that people who work in the finance industry assess and value people by their assets, earning power, net wealth, etc. Truthfully most of society does. I think these are all values of little importance compared with being honest, helpful and law-abiding. I am sure you are the exception though.
Posting this on ZH is basically ASKING for (irrelevant) comments such as the ones above mine and the replies i will get to this.
Yes working in finance is 'nice' (i dont mean bs back office positions) but bragging about it will not get you far, especially on the interwebs where all posters have some sort of death threat against bankers.
Jealousy, yes probably.. but anal yst you KNEW what kind of responses you would get.
You're 100% correct. Sometimes its fun to feed the trolls, especially when in so doing I get to throw out some honest introspection.
Another hook beyond the joy of information junkieism and the stones to act upon the flow as you understand it. Predation at the pinnacle of commercial interchange and trolling for trolls. Recess and a check to boot. WhoT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCfWHqrYUqo
And because I just can't help it... Cheers Anal_yst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0XLKcMoXRE
As you appreciate that there are all sorts of ways to express "Nothing but net" professionally and personally, situation depending...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnxIITeNftE
Meanwhile good to see ya explore what success means to yaz. Have a terrific journey
As someone who has a newbie IBanker friend I agree with you. He works absolutely insane hours. He does it for a combination of factors, most certainly one of them is enjoyment of the work. At the junior levels work it is, brutal and unrelenting.
Its all too easy for the quacks from afar to take something written with a basic angle of honesty and paint it with the broadest of brushes, but hey thats life.
That being said the problem isn't the intellectual enjoyment but the narrowing of intellect that allows these young bankers to be channelled into doing ever more abstract and dangerous things in order to win. In an alpha male winner takes all casino is it any surprise that the biggest gamblers come out ahead?
I clearly remember wishing my friend luck, but telling him on the day he accepted his first position that the company was flat out evil and needed to go bankrupt. He no longer had the intellectual freedom to agree with me. It becomes very difficult to convince a man of a think, when his paycheck depends on not knowing it.
Having come out of ibanking (over 20 years ago), I have to say that your post is absolutely honest. The drive for creativity has nothing to do with the building of a solid company that will serve society. It becomes a game of increasing obfuscation of the truth. I quit when I was helping take public companies that had no business ever going public. Many were one hit wonders that had a short shelf life and the public float was more about enriching the founder and his cohort than providing any useful financing with which to enhance product lines. You can lie to yourself for awhile and tell yourself that you haven't sold your soul to the devil but the reality is that you have.
I think the biggest problem has nothing to do with intellectual enjoyment. I can clearly see how fun it would be in the middle of these games. I, for one, used to enjoy bridge to an unhealthy degree. The biggest problem, the thing that makes peoples blood boil and makes the "trolls" come out is the MORAL HAZARD. If the banks were still constrained by glass stegal and the high wire act of big money speculating wasn't protected by the safety net of public bail outs and protection from prosecution by complicit regulators the intrigues of big money battles would be a much more compelling sport to observe.
I couldn't agree more, in fact, I've been arguing for years that we need to reform financial regulation/enforcement, that any actions that reinforce let alone contribute to moral hazard should be avoided at almost any cost, and that private actors should bear the effects of their actions, not the public.
I couldn't agree more, in fact, I've been arguing for years that we need to reform financial regulation/enforcement, that any actions that reinforce let alone contribute to moral hazard should be avoided at almost any cost, and that private actors should bear the effects of their actions, not the public.
Well that shuts me up. When I heard Wall street I assumed you worked for one of the big five monsters that are survivng by attaching themselves to the public teat and draining the country of it's vigour. Those monsters and the people who enable them in any context earn my instant emnity.
The people will come with Pichforks and ropes...Keep up the good work wall street....your end is near.
Uh, I had nothing to do with residential real estate, the mortgage or structured finance industries. If anything, I've been trying to spread information about how things really work and how joe & jane investor/homebuyer can protect themselves for the past few years. Your ire is grossly misplaced.
I think calling yourself an ACHIEVER if you work in BANKING is pretty much TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT JERKOFF SESSION.
My favorite hooker? NOW SHES A GO GETTER.
You are a leach! Face the mirror and LOVE YOUR LEACHNESS and THE LEACH INSIDE!!!!!!
so you couldnt code and you sucked at sports. Starting a real biz or creating products just isnt in your blood. You thought how else can I make easy money LAWYER OR FINANCE were your two big choices and law school was like code and sports TOO HARD
HOOKER BREATH!!!!!!!!!!
I've ran 2 businesses before I graduate college, fwiw. Thanks for trying, though.
wow I guess that worked out awesome you work at a bank for a hobby?
Hooker Breath!!!!!!!
Why are you so proud of your anal yeast?