Traders should mind their metaphors

The answer could be more significant than it seems. Thomas Oberlechner, a visiting scholar at Harvard University and head of psychology at Webster University in Vienna, has researched the metaphors used by foreign exchange traders. He believes their choice of language amounts to more than mere decoration, it underlies everything from their trading behaviour to the way they interact with other people.

Oberlechner said: "Metaphors suggest the underlying structure of thinking. They are a bridge between the abstract notion of the market and something more tangible. People have a deep psychological need for them."

His research, based on hour-long interviews with 55 traders and treasurers at commercial, investment and central banks in Europe, as well as financial journalists, showed there are seven basic metaphors used to describe the way markets work. They are the market as a bazaar; as a machine; as gambling; as sport; as war; as a living being; and as an ocean.

People who describe the market as a machine see it as predictable and rational, said Oberlechner. They refer to things like inputs and outputs and the market's engine. Those who refer to it as a war zone think in terms of danger, death, innocent victims, attacking and counter-attacking.

Those who talk about it as if it were a living being or an ocean see it as something over which they have little control. However, Oberlechner said likening the market to a living being implies that it has a will of its own, while the ocean metaphor suggests something without motivation.

To establish whether successful traders are more likely to use one metaphor than another, Oberlechner has just finished interviewing 400 traders working in 27 banks on Wall Street. He said preliminary results suggest different banks use different metaphors. He also hopes to prove a link between traders' choice of metaphors and their personalities.

Oberlechner said separate research by Ashok Nimgade, a resident at the environmental health school at Harvard, has shown that traders who use the war metaphor tend to be more stressed than those for whom buying and selling stocks is like bobbing on the ocean.

Traders themselves may be hard to convince. One foreign exchange trader in London admitted to feeling bloodied and bruised by the market on occasion. He said: "The market can feel like a physical thing. It is a bit like being mauled by an animal or being run over - backwards and forwards."

However, Martyn Brush, global head of foreign exchange derivatives at HSBC, said: "I don't use any metaphors to describe the market. I simply see it as a marketplace. To describe it as a war zone sounds over-dramatic." Another trader at a European bank was equally prosaic. He said: "I don't use metaphors. At the end of the day, the market is just a job for a lot of people."

Sally Knight, a business psychologist and specialist in neurolinguistic programming, which looks at links between language and behaviour, said people often use metaphors without realising it. She said: "Metaphors are unconscious. They are hidden in the structure of language. There is usually a metaphor at the deepest level of how we experience the world and ourselves."

She said a trading client, a former marine, persistently used battle metaphors such as "being on target" and "taking aim". He had come to her for advice on how to shed his military image, which he felt was holding back his career, and was surprised to learn that he routinely used language that reinforced that image.

Is it possible to change the kind of metaphors you use? Knight thinks so and believes the first step is being aware of their existence. She said: "You need to become aware of the linguistic choices you are making and the place they are coming from." With coaching and a lot of discipline, Knight suggests that someone who talks about "going in for the kill" could instead refer to being "on the crest of a wave".

Gaining a promotion could be another way of changing metaphors. One senior trader said top staff tend to talk quite straightforwardly: "You would not get senior staff at large banks describing the market as a war zone. It is self-aggrandising language and more likely to be found among junior staff or smaller houses."

Shaun Springer, chief executive of headhunter Napier Scott and a former trader, said the metaphors traders use change with seniority and product complexity. He said: "The more basic the products you are trading, the more basic the cerebral requirements and the more basic the metaphors." Traders working with simple products tend to favour lewd descriptions, said Springer. Top traders have traditionally been called "big swinging dicks" and showing a trading position is "lifting your skirt".