Monitors in the São Paulo stock exchange are watched by stock-traders

Date

2007

Description

Creator of the image: Rafael Matsunaga
Date of the image creation: 2007
Medium: Photograph
Persons depicted: Brazilian stock-traders

This photograph was taken inside the Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange, in São Paulo. Founded in 1890, this stock exchange was largely controlled by the state to manage finance, until 2007 when it was demutualized to become a for-profit company. Thereafter it expanded rapidly, reaching a peak in 2011 with a massive market capitalization of US$1.2 trillion, making it the thirteenth largest stock exchange on earth. It has since shrunk somewhat: as of 2015 it was the 20th largest.

The photo shows traders sitting in front of computer monitors watching the flicker of large panels of number. Their faces are reflected in the screens. The floor of the trading room is becoming increasingly obsolete, with financial algorithms conducting more and more of the transactions, bouncing vast amounts of money around globally integrated financial networks. In recent years various electronically mediated trading schemes and ‘dark pools’ of liquid capital of have taken much of the money out of traditional stock exchanges as they seek to avoid regulation and maximize their accumulation.

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