778 neighbour of some guy
24th January 2014, 14:30
Former traders, psychologist, writer, journalist/anthropologist in a documentary about the workings of a bankers brain, psychopathy, Aspergers and insecurities, especially the Aspergers bit is quite interesting imo especially because of the difference in thinking in numbers and the physical real world and the discrepancies it causes.
English and Dutch subtitles so don't worry.
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Flash
24th January 2014, 17:34
The brain of a banker
Describing the brain of a banker : design an enfironment of short termers only, everyone think of himself only. After 2008 nobody went to jail, so it it sht rule itself.
A commission on standard of banking, wondering if the banking sector is truly an asset, because of the size of the banks and the leverage, may look like assets but are hydrogen balloons hanging over the society.
Questionnaires were sent to bankers. One banker’s wife reading the questionnaires suddenly understood what her husband was doing, having lived with him for 20 years and never having been told what was happening behind banks glass buildings.
You have easily 10 papers on gender studies in Gaza but when you want to know how hedge manager work you will find only abstract writings on how a university degree banker should be according to the economic theories. Basically nothing studies on the ground even if they are sharing the decisions on our lives.
« 2 days within my new career, I realized tha I had a cash cow that was crying out to be milk by caughky risk taking banker like myself. I just needed to understand where the rule could be broken and sit back while my bank account was growing exponentially« Geraint Anderson
He worked 12 years in the city He goes on saying « My bank hectic trading fortune was based on the fact that some big swinging dicks old brash confident matrix had decided in their crib that defeat was not an option. Investment banks attract and reward hyper competitive gamblers whose arrogance is only rivaled by their ruthlessness » Geraing Anderson
Terry Durhan, math degree from MIT, 10 years on trading floor. « You become institutionalized and educated to be part of that culture, …. JP Morgan, in the team there were very smart people and people risk aware, not risk averse, but …. Risk managers not traders, a playfull environment, 1 million was a buck so it is a 50 buck trade….100 bucks trade , a billion was a yard, .. not real terms, … it is like monopoly money. I remember thinking this is dissasociated from reality, … it is just fun »
« Banker operated in a never never wold beyond any regulation, it is a nice place to be. »
The researcher : this is a terrible world, as long as we are angry at them we are reinforcing the ides of alledged jealousy needed for their self image. When Lloyd Blankfein says « we do God’s work », the arrogance is just oozing. This arrogance that says everyone want to be me.
I see people under stress, a mix, some cold and calculated, but the average traders, you have some some cold ones, … but others are boys and girls who have been chasing societies’ promises.
Psychologist working in the city as a coach to managers, Peter Sioen (from me : not a good name to trust the truth, lol peter sion lol). All rest on neurotransmitters and hormones, and chemicals in the brain. We have studied how greed works, triggering certain hormones that once tasted, will make the being even greedier than they originally were.
The proportion of psychopaths in the top managers in the financial sector, is as high and share the same psychopatic traits as psychopaths in jail (based on questionnaires).
But to say we really know what is going on in their heads based on photographs, I would say that the face is the last place to look for clues. If you say a 22 years old they are the best thing on the planet and you stuff their hands with cash, of course they will become arrogant. Their testosterone levels are the highers, that is the culture right now. The world in the hand of 25 years old.
John Coates, senior research fellow in neurosciences and finance, University of Cambridge, , « I too, when i was making above average profits, with exceptional bonus, I came to consider myself as a super heroe ». He is a Canadian who traded for Goldman Sach and run a trading desk for Deutche Bank.
You think you can do anything. You do not need as much sleep, become slightly delusional, really caughky, and you take too much risk, … so convinced that anything you do is going to be right, taht you end up putting on trade which ever worsening trades and you blow up.
This process FEELS narcotics. It does not feel like a cognitive process, he does not feel like greed, it feels narcotic, with a process of power. This narcotic is an important piece of scientific data, it is a molecule.
The main researcher compares it with pedophilies who, as soon as they need to look for the next victim or their next fix, their brain take over and something happens whre they become smarter and more cunning than they really are. When i look at criminals or psychopaths in the business world, it is a thing of nature, rather than nurture, specially banks played a game wehre they took in certain psychopathic characters to bring in bigger profits.
Geraing Anderson : some of the people I was wroking with were actual living, breathing psychopaths (not only joking about it but real ones). 3% of men exhibit the characteristics that makes them real psychopaths. Manipulative, charming, remorseless, arrogant, and lacking any conscience, single mind risk takers with a ruthless will to succeed, unable to empathise with others and are rules brakers,
They are not team players and are expert at office politics, have deviant lifestyles and only superficial relationships. Wether the city attracks psychos or simply brings out the worst, i can say from my experience that the city all pervasive hyper competitive, maximize your bonuses at any cost mentality, demands that we, borderline psychos, forget our more gentle human qualitites as we ruthlessly strive to beat our colleagues.
The main researcher says that although the city may not be run by psychopaths, but he says that pscychopaths or those acting mercilessly are tolerated and rewarded and celebrated when bringing lots of money.
The sophistication of the banking product is so difficult to understand, that if you did, the bank would probably hire you.
I am up to 20 minutes in the video, you can watch the rest.
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