Trading room telephones and the identification of counterparts

Although computers and electronic networks have become pervasive in contemporary financial markets, the telephone keeps playing a crucial role as a communication device in the trading rooms of investment banks and brokerage houses. The author examines this technology, its uses and the way in which it frames trade interactions in a number of empirical situations, with particular attention to the combinations of this tool with trading screens and other electronic media. Compared to other market technologies, the telephone emphasizes the identification of bilateral counterparts. The use of the telephone can thus help characterizing an important sociological feature of particular market configurations: namely, the extent to which trading practices are based on the recognition of individual counterparts.