Markets never sleep. Traders will always have to rise early

ASKED what he thought about the London Stock Exchange’s idea to lop 90 minutes off the City trading day to aid mental health and attract more women, my favourite trader pulled a face and replied: Real men don’t eat quiche. You could say this reply is what is wrong with the old City.

All that macho alpha male rubbish about breakfast being for wimps. And lunch too, unless it’s liquid.

A trading day which starts at 8am means many are in the office by 6.30am, which is hard to reconcile with childcare, or indeed a proper night’s sleep. More time for analysis of corporate results before trading begins ought to cut the early volatility that routinely sees the shares of perfectly good companies suddenly plunge far more than is reasonable. You could say that, and you’d be wrong. Traders complaining about early starts is a bit like doctors complaining about being exposed to ill people.

Not every job is compatible with the school run. Besides, so far as I can see, no actual traders are complaining. The BBC quotes an outfit called the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. Ah, there we go, this is a Euro drive to make London trading as sluggish as it is in Paris, to remove one of London’s main market advantages — that we dictate the trading day, partly due to our geographical position, and partly because we are good at getting out of bed in the morning.

Moreover, at the danger of sounding like Gordon Gekko, markets never sleep. There is not much point in trying to get those markets to adjust to the needs of a family with three young children whose parents insist a City trading job is what they both must have. It plainly isn’t. Tough luck.

David Buik of Core Spreads, inbetween mouthfuls of raw meat, offers a concession. Let’s start trading as early as we do now, perhaps earlier, but offer shift work.

He says: “With globalisation increasing its influence everywhere I would like to see dealing rooms manned around the clock, which will require the employment of more traders and brokers. That might alleviate the intense pressure that dealers and managers feel.” And if it doesn’t: you are in the wrong job.