Daily mark-to-market accounting makes trader identity perpetually at risk

Evidence

Traders keep track of their profit and loss balance with practically every trade; their worth is explicit not only to themselves but also to their supervisors, at every moment in time. In this situation, the trader puts his or her self on the line with every move. In particular, losses promote fear and perhaps greed and are expressed in a vocabulary that resounds with the emotions of perceived violence and attack. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 126

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to financialization literature on the performativity of accounting (e.g., MacKenzie on how marking practices constitute markets). — connects to: Trader identity depends on continuous connection to the market domain — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 71; Traders depend on continuous information commerce, not search, to act in split seconds — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 130; Taking positions makes traders materially part of the market — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 75

Broader Connections

• Trader identity depends on continuous connection to the market domain #corroborates (0.80) — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 71
• Taking positions makes traders materially part of the market #expands (0.80) — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 75
• Traders depend on continuous information commerce, not search, to act in split seconds #expands (0.75) — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 130