The Fisher Account

Concept and art direction: Ivar Hagendoorn
Choreography: Ivar Hagendoorn and Raphaëlle Delaunay
Dancer: Raphaëlle Delaunay
Programming assistance: Jason Turner
Music: Paula Matthusen

Awards

First prize rhein tanzmedia award 2002.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Marielle Wiegmans, former director and Chief Operating Officer (1996-2003) of AOT, at the time one of the largest Dutch market maker and brokerage firms and to Annabelle Baldwin and Elizabeth Conner of the DPM Association of Chicago, the association of Designated Primary Market Makers at the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

"Are you still handling the Fisher account? What else can I say to him?". Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho.

The Fisher Account

"When I press for information about the Fisher account he offers useless statistical information that I already knew about: how Rothschild was originally handling the account, how Owen came to acquire it."
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho.

The Fisher Account originally coupled a database of movements inspired by the hand signals used by traders on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to financial data gathered in real-time from the internet.

In the current version the real-time link has been removed since it required near constant monitoring for data glitches. It now runs on simulated stock prices. Visually the experience is the same.

When judging the project please take into account that it was developed in 2002-2003. With today's technology issues that at the time were a major struggle are now much easier to implement. And now that DSL speeds are commonplace file size and therefore video compression is no longer an issue either. Perhaps one day when I have some time to spare I'll do a new version with higher resolution video.

The project runs continuously, but just move on to another page or site or do something useful with your time when you get bored. There is no story, no beginning and no end. That's the whole point, actually.

The title was inspired by a recurring phrase in Bret Easton Ellis' hilarious satire of the late 80's American Psycho:"Who's handling the Fisher account?". Just as Patrick Bateman's gruesome murders and executions, the Fisher Account is purely virtual. Yet as such it casts its shadow over the actual world. What's more, it feeds on it, growing in size with the actual accounts handled by Bateman, Price, McDermott and Van Patten & Co. It drives their envy and imagination and is a bitter topic of conversation.

In its present incarnation The Fisher Account is also purely virtual and actualizes itself every time the project is loaded. It is an image of the financial world itself where the value of a mutual fund or a globally operating firm is only ever an indication at a particular moment in time.

The project aims to evoke on a single screen some of the information overload and excitement of a dealing room or a trading floor. A screen trader usually sits behind two or three screens, one of which displays his or her portfolio while the other(s) are connected to Reuters or Bloomberg, which display a constant stream of information, not just financial data, divided over a huge number of screens and menus, but also news headlines and customizable corporate, sports or entertainment news. All of this comes flashing by and often you have to go to a specified menu to see whether you saw what you thought you saw. If you've got the time to do so, that is.

"We should have lunch, I say, trying to figure out a way to bring up the Fisher account without being tacky about it".
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho.

"Who's handling the Fisher account?" "Screw that. What about the Shephard thing? The Shephard Account?".
Bret Easton Ellis: American Psycho.

The Theory

"Investment banking is an unusual field. I don't know if there is any way you can explain it to anyone under twenty. Or perhaps under thirty."
Tom Wolfe: The Bonfire of the Vanities.

The actual signals used by floor traders on the CBOE consist of movements of the hands and arms only. And as a matter of fact are positions more than they are movements. Taking inspiration from the actual movements we invented some elementary movements and positions of our own. To these we applied some simple transformations so as to retain the systematic nature of the original signals. These transformations can be thought of as some sort of a generative grammar for those who are familiar with the work of Noam Chomsky. (Try and spot the reference to the work of Chomsky).

For instance a movement could be performed while standing, kneeling or squatting, the spine could be bent or straight, the arms parallel or crossed, the direction of an arm, leg or finger up, down or sideways, the movement could involve one or two hands or fingers, which could be held against the front, back (if applicable) or side of the chin, head, nose, knee, arm or back.

The actual signals all have a meaning, buy, sell, call, put, 5, 30 or 500, near term or next term, full, 1/2 or 5/8, no trade etc. Initially we wanted to attach different meanings to each of our own movements as well. However, eventually we decided against this because it would make little or no difference to the viewer. We wanted the viewer to enjoy the shapes and not to have to learn a language before being able to appreciate what's going on. Because some of the movements and positions are linked to the (simulated) data some meaning does 'emerge'.

Today most trading floors are electronic and only the CBOE uses open outcry. The New York Mercantile Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange still have a trading floor, but the traders all have handheld devices. Over at the CBOE traders still use old fashioned tickets, pencil and paper.

Links

Trading Pit History is a site that documents the hand signals used by floor traders. It's a wonderful source. Note that the site did not yet exist when I was working on this project and I regret I didn't come up with the idea myself!

"I sometimes wonder what money is," she said. "Yes, of course, exactly. I will tell you what I think. It is becoming very esoteric. All waves and codes. A higher kind of intelligence. Travels at the speed of light."
Don DeLillo: Underworld.