Looking Out, Locking In: Financial Models and the Social Dynamics of Arbitrage Disasters Daniel Beunza Department of Management London School of Economics
[email protected] and David Stark Department of Sociology Columbia University
[email protected] We are thankful to Michael Jensen, Katherine Kellogg, Jerry Kim, Bruce Kogut, Ko Kuwabara, David Ross, Susan Scott, Tano Santos, Stoyan Sgourev, Josh Whitford, Joanne Yates, Francesco Zirpoli and Ezra Zuckerman for comments on previous versions of the paper. Looking Out, Locking In: Financial Models and the Social Dynamics of Arbitrage Disasters Abstract This study analyzes the opportunities and dangers created by financial models. Through ethnographic observations in the derivatives trading room of a major investment bank, we found that traders use models in reverse to look out for possible errors in their financial estimates. We refer to this practice as reflexive modeling. The strength of reflexive modeling resides in leveraging the cognitive independence among dispersed, anonymous actors. But as our analysis demonstrates, it can also give rise to cognitive interdependence. When enough traders overlook a key issue, their positions send the wrong message to the rest of the market. The resulting lock-in leads to arbitrage disasters. Our analysis challenges behavioral finance by locating the root of systemic risk in the calculative tools used by the actors, rather than in their individual biases and limitations. 1 Looking out, locking in: Financial Models and the Social Dynamics of Arbitrage Disasters On June 12th, 2001 the European Commission stated its firm opposition to the planned merger between two Fortune 500 companies. The Commission’s ruling put an end to the proposed combination between General Electric and Honeywell International, initially announced in October 2000.