Good trader, good trading: The presence and the regulation of emotions in financial markets

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to offer a critical view on the role of emotions in financial markets. More specifically, I pretend to analyze the relationship between emotions and the socio-structural conditions of these markets. I propose an approach based on a) secondary ethnographic sources through which it is possible to explore the individual inter-subjectivity of the financial actors and b) a specific kind of financial literature whose main goal is to propose a behavioral-emotional regulation model for traders. According to several main concepts from Norbert Elias’ sociology, I suggest an analytical scheme which connects the macro-sociological and micro-sociological aspects related to the presence and regulation of financial emotions. In this sense, I try to respond to two key questions: a) what are the typical emotions experienced by financial actors and which are their functions in the investment decision process? and b) which emotional regulation patterns are proposed to these actors in order to complete successful financial operations?