Taking positions makes traders materially part of the market

Evidence

As they take positions (i.e., as they buy and sell currencies for their own accounts), traders become part of the market, and, as a consequence, market events in general and their own position within them is of intense interest to them. Thus, on one level, the reciprocity of observation is an essential and invariable aspect of these temporally focused global interaction systems, in addition to being an underlying source of intersubjectivity. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 75

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how proprietary trading converts watchful detachment into embodied market participation, a mechanism central to understanding screen-based markets.
• XREF: connects to: Trading-floor talk is dominated by dealing and information exchanges. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 57; New financial markets require coercive persuasion of members to create initial liquidity — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 691; Physical layout of exchange pits shapes who traders can see and trade with. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 79 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• New financial markets require coercive persuasion of members to create initial liquidity #expands (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 691