The Irrelevance of Unsuccessful Traders

Business Ethics Journal Review 6 (8):41-46 (2018)
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Abstract

Alasdair MacIntyre argues that moral virtues are antithetical to what is required of those who trade in financial markets to succeed. MacIntyre focuses on four virtues and argues that successful traders possess none of them: (i) self-knowledge, (ii) courage, (iii) taking a long-term perspective, and (iv) tying one’s own good with some set of common goods. By contrast, I argue that (i)–(iii) are, in fact, traits of successful traders, regardless of their normative assessment. The last trait – caring about the common good – is often counterproductive in most for-profit ventures, including trading, and so singling out traders is inappropriate.

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Gil Hersch
Virginia Tech

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The fable of the bees, or, Private vices, publick benefits.Bernard Mandeville - 1924 - Indianapolis: Liberty Classics. Edited by F. B. Kaye.
The Case for Investment Advising as a Virtue-Based Practice.Keith D. Wyma - 2015 - Journal of Business Ethics 127 (1):231-249.

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