The Death of Prop Trading?

Wall Street screamed and whined and successfully fought to keep prop trading, but they’re not doing it so much anymore. Michael Lewis wonders why. He examines a few reasons: Wall Street has gotten religion (um, no), prop trading isn’t profitable (possibly), they’re still doing it (yes, just with a new name), none of the above or a combination of the others.

And yet news of the death of the Wall Street prop trader has been greeted with hardly a peep. And I wonder: is this the nature of our new financial order? Big decisions, in which the public has a clear interest, being made outside public view, with little public discussion or understanding.

If so, it isn’t a future at all. It’s just the past, repeating itself.

Posted by on September 29th, 2010 at 10:46 pm


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