The lives of traders

Abstract

This chapter leaves the realm of trading strictly speaking and returns to the broader context in which it takes place, namely the social lives of those who participate in trading. How is trading integrated with the traders’ family life and friendships? What do traders aim to achieve by trading, socially speaking? Has trading changed them in any way as persons? What motivates them to trade? In the ways traders talk about what they are doing, surprisingly little pertains to utilitarian motives, and there is a constant preoccupation to relate this activity—admittedly not a very usual one—to their broader social lives. What does this relationship look like? The chapter shows that, contrary to many assumptions about trading as something esoteric, which does not have much to do with ordinary lives, traders make sense of their trading decisions and of their activities in front of the screen in relationship to issues of family life, friendships, and personal relationships. This chapter reworks the “hostile worlds” argument from economic sociology in order to show that trading decisions are not only adapted to personal life, but are also actively and purposefully used in shaping personal relationships with family and friends.