LAID-OFF TRADERS ARE NOW SHRINK RAPT
By JOHN AIDAN BYRNE
November 26, 2006 -- Wall Street traders - traumatized by mass layoffs as electronic trading replaces humans - are beginning to seek help from psychologists, their colleagues and doctors tell The Post.
Appointments at shrinks' offices for pros recently tossed aside by super-fast, more cost-efficient trading computers, are on the rise, they said.
"Traders are now going to psychologists - of course they are," said Howard Lasher, a veteran trader on the floor of the American Stock Exchange, watching downcast traders head for the exits at neighboring NYSE. "What's the choice?"
Dr. Ari Kiev, best-selling author of several books on the psychology of trading - he taught his groundbreaking strategies to billionaire hedge fund trader Steve Cohen - admits he has seen several traders recently due to unemployment trauma.
"Some traders would talk to me about those kind of issues," he told The Post. "They could be clinically depressed or suffering from a phobic disorder." Dr. Kiev, who refined the motivational techniques for traders he pioneered as the first psychiatrist on the U.S. Olympic Sports Medicine Council, said his aim is to get pink-slipped pros back in the game.
"If the trader has made money, then the issue is finding some meaningful occupation or activity," he says.
The exchange floor pros, for instance, are getting the boot in droves at LaBranche & Co., Van der Moolen and other floor firms - raising anxiety to mentally disturbing new highs.
But some traders say the emotional troubles run deeper than money. "When traders read about massive bonuses, the leveraged buyouts and the millions of dollars changing hands, it just compounds their depression," says an alarmed Lasher.
Kiev says traders need a strong stomach for uncertainty. "You've got be able to able to live with failure and loss in order to succeed," he adds.
Meanwhile, on the NYSE floor, one trader says the place is becoming like a ghost town as old buddies pack a few sentimental belongings - like photos from the Christmas party - into a bag and then leave the building for the last time.
"Nobody smiles and jokes around like they did in the past," he said. |
