Markets require abstract standardized assets that may not physically exist yet.

Evidence

Today, financial exchanges represent a massive proportion of the globe’s economic activity, especially in highly “developed” nations, where financial services has emerged as among the most “productive” sectors of the economy. Yet the primary product and medium of this “industry” is immaterial, speculative and promissory: the manipulation of risk, probability, market differentials, insurance and, essentially, belief. While defenders of the sector might claim that all these digital financial ephemera are merely the good-faith representations of real-world wealth, the truth is that financial assets are, in large part, imaginary. But imaginary, in my reading, does not mean unreal. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

When the Mere launched the S&P 500 index futures discussed below, Melamed was similarly active in pressuring and persuading its members to trade the new product. Other traders would show him their time-stamped trading tickets to demonstrate that they had done the 15 minutes of trading per day on the nascent market that Melamed demanded. They would be “ashamed not to” do this minimum for the collective good, says Melamed (interview). — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 691 (#expands, via linked claim)

Markets, like technologies, are surely means to be tinkered with, modified, redesigned, improved, and on occasion delimited not ends that can only be embraced or be rejected. They are not forces of nature, but human creations. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1237 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: New financial markets require coercive persuasion of members to create initial liquidity — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 691; Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29; Markets are human creations amenable to redesign, not natural forces — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1237 (+4 more)

Related

• Launching a new market contract requires coercive mobilization of its own members. (similarity 0.85)
• Markets are human creations amenable to redesign, not natural forces (similarity 0.82)
• Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal (similarity 0.81)
• New financial markets require coercive persuasion of members to create initial liquidity (similarity 0.81)
• Markets are constructed artifacts requiring sustained political maintenance, not spontaneous phenomena. (similarity 0.81)
• Modern financial markets are deliberately designed entities (similarity 0.80)
• Futures markets need infrastructure beyond self-interested participants to succeed (similarity 0.79)
• Market designers deliberately conflate actual markets with the abstract market (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal #qualifies (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29
• New financial markets require coercive persuasion of members to create initial liquidity #expands (0.80) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 691
• Markets are human creations amenable to redesign, not natural forces #complicates (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1237