Why so secretive about who you work for?

[horseshoe]

I've noticed a lot of users of this forum, and similar ones, often state things like, "I work for a BB IB firm in London." It seems quants, or maybe finance professionals in general, are quite secretive about who they work for. I was just wondering why it's like this in the community? Should we not be proud we work for well-known, robust companies? I know several software engineers who proudly boast who they work for, and in most other careers I feel it's the same. Any thoughts into the disconnect?

 

[pingu]

I've noticed a lot of users of this forum, and similar ones, often state things like, "I work for a BB IB firm in London." It seems quants, or maybe finance professionals in general, are quite secretive about who they work for. I was just wondering why it's like this in the community? Should we not be proud we work for well-known, robust companies? I know several software engineers who proudly boast who they work for, and in most other careers I feel it's the same. Any thoughts into the disconnect?

anybody working for a company that has a policy in place will behave like that. It has nothing to do with secretive but on self-preservation. Financial companies STRICTLY prohibit any comments on a public forum that haven't been cleared by their compliance department.

If something happens (something is a very loose term here) and the lawyers get involved (and they will since $$$$), in the best case scenario the person who post the comment gets fired. Worst, fines and jail time. Remember, in finance, reputation is everything.

 

[Varun Dubey]

Anonymity in today's world is golden

 

[pingu]

For example, if I speak at a conference or give a tutorial or a class or any public speaking engagement, I will have to clear the topic, and the slides with the compliance department or my group and my company and sometimes, legal. Then I will have to plaster a huge disclaimer provided by the firm in the presentation/slides/papers, etc.

 

[Gavin L]

First, financial information has such immense power to cause moves in global markets... Secondly, reputation is everything, as already stated above!

 

[avarava]

So that they don't get lynched online by the "masses" :D. I remember being asked to not come in a suit to work during the occupy Wall Street protests.

 

[TehRaio]

So that they don't get lynched online by the "masses" :D. I remember being asked to not come in a suit to work during the occupy Wall Street protests.

:o so it was like working at a silicon valley start-up for a while, eh? :D