Mathematicization of options trading happened through, not despite, pit trading’s bodily social structures

Evidence

The gradual “mathematicization” of options trading did not mean abstraction from the dense, bodily, spatial social structures of Chicago pit trading: mathematicization took place through those structures, not despite them. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 755

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the chapter’s key theoretical claim — the apparent abstraction into mathematics did not detach trading from its embodied social context but occurred through it. A dense point worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: Screen-based trading recreated rather than abolished trader sociality and mutual anticipation. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 427; Option pricing converged on economic models through traders copying other users. — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 183; Economic sociology should study what makes calculative action possible, not irrational intrusion — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 65 (+2 more)