Trader identity depends on continuous connection to the market domain

Evidence

Split pay arrangements are of course also used in other sectors of the economy to increase motivation and competition, but, in the present example, the membership categorization that accompanies the split pay is notable. There is a domain “out there” to which traders belong, as market participants and market makers; traders want to be connected and want to keep track of this domain. When traders leave their job and are no longer connected, they may feel that they have been stripped of part of their selves—and may buy little handheld Reuters screens to reconnect themselves, however tenuously. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 71

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the trader-as-screen-subject literature and to the broader theme of identity fused to technological connection; resonates with debates on remote work and professional selfhood. — connects to: Screen-based trading recreated rather than abolished trader sociality and mutual anticipation. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 427; Interbank currency traders form a global social system distinct from local exchange brokerages — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 13; Daily mark-to-market accounting makes trader identity perpetually at risk — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures: The Virtual…, 126 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: What makes the handheld Reuters screen a talismanic object of identity rather than merely a tool?

Related

• Retired traders buy personal market screens to restore lost identity. (similarity 0.86)
• Interbank currency traders form a global social system distinct from local exchange brokerages (similarity 0.80)
• Traders depend on continuous information commerce, not search, to act in split seconds (similarity 0.78)