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Work stress and performance among financial traders
Author(s) -
Oberlechner Thomas,
Nimgade Ashok
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
stress and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.009
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1532-2998
pISSN - 1532-3005
DOI - 10.1002/smi.1063
Subject(s) - stress (linguistics) , work (physics) , business , psychology , finance , engineering , mechanical engineering , philosophy , linguistics
This study investigated factors associated with work stress and performance among professional decision‐makers in financial markets. Three hundred and twenty‐six financial traders completed questionnaires while supervisors provided performance ratings. Of these 32 per cent of traders reported ‘very high’ or ‘extremely high’ stress levels. Overall, traders ranked ‘profit goal’ as the highest stressor followed by ‘long working hours’. Traders' experience of occupational stress was based on four main factors: Profit Pressure, Social Pressure, Work Load, and Decision‐Processing. These factors varied systematically across different trading roles. Proprietary traders with higher performance ratings experienced less stress. Similar stress ‘profiles’ of North American and European traders indicate universal responses to job demands. Trader work stress is possibly mitigated through self‐selection and substantial latitude over trading style. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.