An inside look at a Wall Street trading room and what this reveals about today's financial system

Debates about financial reform have led to the recognition that a healthy financial system doesn't depend solely on how it is structured-organizational culture matters as well. Based on extensive research in a Wall Street derivatives-trading room, Taking the Floor considers how the culture of financial organizations might change in order for them to remain healthy, even in times of crises. In particular, Daniel Beunza explores how the extensive use of financial models and trading technologies over the recent decades has exerted a far-ranging and troubling influence on Wall Street. How have models reshaped financial markets? How have models altered moral behavior in organizations?

Beunza takes readers behind the scenes in a bank unit that, within its firm, is widely perceived to be "a class act," and he considers how this trading room unit might serve as a blueprint solution for the ills of Wall Street's unsustainable culture. Beunza demonstrates that the integration of traders across desks reduces the danger of blind spots created by models. Warning against the risk of moral disengagement posed by the use of models, he also contends that such disengagement could be avoided by instituting moral norms and social relations.

Providing a unique perspective on a complex subject, Taking the Floor profiles what an effective, responsible trading room can and should look like.

About the Author
Daniel Beunza is associate professor of management in The Business School (formerly Cass Business School) at City, University of London.

Reviews
"Winner of the George R. Terry Book Award, Academy of Management"
"Co-Winner of the EGOS Book Prize, European Group for Organizational Studies"
"Providing a unique perspective on a complex suject, Taking the Floor profiles what an effective, responsible trading room can and should look like."---City Press Office, Cass Business School
"Taking the Floor is a significant contribution to social studies of finance and economic sociology more broadly. It will certainly be worthwhile reading not only for specialists, but also a much broader audience, since the way abstract models shape reality is becoming one of the more salient issues in contemporary societies within and beyond the realm of finance."---Manuel A. Santana-Turegano, London School of Economics Review of Books
""Taking the Floor is beautifully written. . . . Throughout, [Beunza's] storytelling keeps the reader riveted.""---Joel Gehman, Organization Studies



Book Information
ISBN 9780691204772
Author Daniel Beunza
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press