Market's Missing Fear Factor

It stands to reason that people who have watched Hostel, a 2005 horror film that depicts a young man inhumanly tortured in a dark basement, are more likely to avoid budget lodgings. In a similar vein, research has found that those who have lived through the global financial crisis are more likely to shy away from taking on too much risk. Which is why banks, and their shareholders, should be worried as many of the more experienced traders quit the market.

Over the past eight years, financial institutions have reduced their personnel ranks often by cutting the oldest, and better paid, traders first. Bloomberg News's Alastair Marsh reported on Monday that about 70 percent of credit traders who lost their jobs at the biggest investment banks in London last year had worked in the financial industry for more than a decade. According to a recent survey by salary-tracking website Emolument.com, 63 percent of some 2,223 respondents had less than nine years' experience under their belt. That means most of them weren't managing any risk whatsoever when the credit crisis was wiping billions from bourses.