Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
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I've met a surprising number of woman traders, interesting to know that it is a "thing", not just my own anecdote.
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Trading is the ultimate "pay for results" environment. Even though many outsiders think of it as an old boys' club type environment, traders simply can't last if they can't perform, so while there are pockets of old boy club attitudes here and there, at the end of the day trading is very meritocratic and/or egalitarian. Before it became highly computerized it was even more egalitarian, pulling in all sorts of people from across Chicago to help run trading companies and exchanges. With the explosion of electronic trading it helps now to have a metric ton of education (especially in math), but before that if you had decent logic, decent arithmetic, and a good dollop of moxie you could make a good living in the trading industry regardless of demographic. New York finance was old boys networks because it was M&A and handshake deals. Open outcry trading, on the other hand, is all about individual performance buying low, selling high, and not who you know.