trading euphemisms?

[JumpOff]

I just got a weekly newsletter from Joe Ross. He suggests that you keep your conversations about what you do for a living low key. That telling people, "I make my living by speculating in foreign currencies," is a bad idea. It puts pressure on you, you have to live up to your reputation, people may want to hear about your success stories, it gets harder to admit you are on the wrong side of a position and to cut your losses......

Well what do you tell people you do for a living, if you don't admit you are a trader? (Not sure that's quite what Ross meant, - but I can't imagine any low key way to say, "I make my living by speculating in foreign currencies.")

I mean, this seems really awkward. I have no desire to blather to anyone socially that I am even *studying* the market, in hopes of trading in the future. I just think it would be exhausting to have to continually re-explain what it is that you do to people who won't have the slightest clue of what you are talking about...

Is there some pleasantly dull euphemism that is appropriate for social occasions where you are likely to be asked, "and what do you do?"
JO

 

[Tuffty]

It is an issue. I usually say in a low key way I'm in finance, most people blank over at this point but if they persist and ask more I own up and say I trade the markets. This happenned on a plane once and later on the questioner started a question along the lines of 'so if you dabble in the markets'. I was quite offended as you'd never accuse any one else of 'dabbling' in their chosen profession.

 

[TheBramble]

"I'm a proctocologist" will handle most situations where you don't feel the need to develop the '...and what do you do..." conversational gambit.

 

[techst]

Why do you have the need to tell people anyway Jump Off? When you first start it might feel good to tell people, but the need to tell people is probably a bigger problem than the question itself. I can see where Ross is coming from, but go with brambles one.

 

[Airthrey Capital]

Ther are 2 options....

1. Tell them to mind their own business

3. Tell them that you work for the Inland Revenue.

Either way, the conversation will be short.

 

[Airthrey Capital]

......Tell them you can't even count (see above).

That way they will at least believe that you work for the IR!

 

[donaldduke]

Businessman is a good euphemism for Trader.

If asked to be more specific, say your business is to provide liquidity to the capital markets.

 

[trendie]

this aspect was covered quite well on one of the Innerworth newsletters.
JumpOff rightly explains that there is the presure to "live up" to expectations.

Whenever I am asked what I do in between IT projects, I say I am writing a finance-system for someone.
This allows me to be involved in the markets, ostensibly to write software, but without telling anyone that I actually trade them.
I love this cloak-and-dagger stuff.

 

[Glenn]

The question is "How do you make a living".
In respect of trading, for most people this will only ever amount to "How would you like to make a living".

Glenn

 

[JumpOff]

Why do you have the need to tell people anyway Jump Off? When you first start it might feel good to tell people, but the need to tell people is probably a bigger problem than the question itself. I can see where Ross is coming from, but go with brambles one.

Well for now I can just say, "I am a programmer." I was enjoying a fantasy moment about what it will be like when I get this trading thing figured out and learn how to make my account go up... At some point in the future I expect to make more of my income from trading than programming, and someone is going to casually ask me what I do. I'm a terrible liar - I feel bad about it and people can sense I'm skirting something. So I thought I'd just ask if any of you have a canned response that isn't a lie.

Bramble, I like yours the best, but I doubt that I could pull it off with a straight face. Trendie's euphemism is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for: "I say I am writing a finance-system for someone."

Thanks all,
JO

 

[dbphoenix]

Seems the English have become infected with the American obsession with revealing personal details to perfect strangers. No one has ever come up with a satisfactory way of saying "None of your business", though only the most thick-headed will persist when one says "I beg your pardon" with just the right inflection. When they do, just reply "Nothing", and their eyes will virtually glitter with envy.

 

[JumpOff]

Seems the English have become infected with the American obsession with revealing personal details to perfect strangers. No one has ever come up with a satisfactory way of saying "None of your business", though only the most thick-headed will persist when one says "I beg your pardon" with just the right inflection. When they do, just reply "Nothing", and their eyes will virtually glitter with envy.

"What do you do?" must be one of the rudest questions on the planet. - Yet it is often one of the first things a stranger asks here in the states after being introduced. I have always found, "what do you like to do in your spare time?" to be much more interesting anyway....
JO

 

[The Beyonder]

I remember watching this film once where a guy jokingly replied to "What do you do?", "I just got out of jail for killing a guy who asked too many questions".

That'd work!!

 

[dbphoenix]

"What do you do?" must be one of the rudest questions on the planet.

Second only to "Why aren't you married yet?" Though the underlying question is actually "How much money do you make?"

The more onerous the invasion of privacy becomes, the more I resist providing any personal information at all, even to the point of registering for websites (which is another way of saying "Please send me as much junk email as you have available"). The simplest response to "What do you do?" remains "This and that", though if one wants to be intriguing, he can always say "I buy and sell" (even though Louis Bernard got stabbed in the back).

 

[trader28]

I fight crime under the cover of darkness

 

[SvenFoster]

look nervously over each shoulder and whisper... "The crimson cow flies south for winter, but she lands yesterday"
That usually gives me the space i crave.

 

[danfreek]

"I sell double glazing, actually now you mention it.........."

they've usually run out of the door before I can finish.