Let’s call him James, a trader in a City investment bank; young, smartly dressed, confident, and a little impatient. He sat across from me in the interview:

“It’s really important to stay cool. For myself, I can say that I really don’t have much emotion while I trade”.

Half an hour later, as he relaxed a little, the façade had started to crack:

“Actually the pressure can be horrendous, a trade goes badly wrong, you are staring into black hole, frozen, knowing you should get out but just hoping the market will turn . . I rushed off the desk and threw up in the toilet – I was terrified”.

Continue reading “‘The heart has its reasons’: emotions and cognition in the world of finance”