Submitted by Finance Addict [5]
Wall Street Has A Sad :-(
Michael “Moneyball” Lewis was the first one to, er, expose us to the term Big Swinging Dick. His his first novel, Liar’s Poker, was full of them. The BSDs were the guys on the trading floor who brought more rain than El Niño.
But the BSDs have gone a little soft now. Even the famous Wall Street bull has been caged. And some, like number one banking fanboi Dick Bove [6] say that bankers been “castrated” altogether by new regulation. Regulation which many argue does not go far enough. [7]
Regardless, the Masters of the Universe suddenly find themselves feeling the pain that many of the rest of us have been feeling for the past four years. Only their ways of coping with it are a little different than what you might expect.
Charles Wallace [8] tells us that many older Wall Street men are resorting to hormone therapy to get their mojo back. They’re seeking testosterone shots from a few doctors who apparently know a gold mine when they see it. The hope? That the shots will help turn the traders back into “alpha males” who can compete with the younger, fresher meat that’s threatening to take their jobs. Welcome to the age of “man-opause”. [9]
One hates to see any human being going through real psychic pain, but this new trend is an irony that we may not be able to afford.
Here’s an industry whose aggressiveness has caused an incredible amount of pain to people all over the world. After bouncing back at warp speed in 2009 and 2010, it’s now suffering lower profitability from rules that have been introduced to rein it in. The lower profitability means that a huge amount of bankers, traders, salespeople and support staff have lost or will lose their jobs. But rather than go quietly into the night, some of these folks are instead resorting to treatment that will make them…even more aggressive.
It’s not just speculation: there are quite a few studies [10] that have found that high testosterone may have played a role in causing the financial crisis. Apparently men with more testosterone risk more money on their trades than men with less. Traders were also shown to make more money on days when their testosterone levels are higher. But of course these trades will not always go the right way; when they blow up they may do so spectacularly.
And if one guy’s feeling his oats, he may consciously or unconsciously egg on those around him to behave the same way. Watch any high-stakes sport event and you’ll see what I mean. So the testosterone effects may be amplified by the kind of herd mentality that’s seen on the Street, in any event.
So, if Wall Street has a sad then maybe it’s up to us to find other ways to cheer them up that don’t involve sacrificing ourselves. And Valentine’s Day seems like a good time to start Any bright ideas?