Peter Levin’s Rethinking Markets

Maligne Lake
Academic Identity

I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.

Professional Identity

I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.

Personal Identity

I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.

April 17, 2007

Futures Trading, Technology, and Institutional Change

Filed under: Technology — Peter @ 12:24 pm

Summary: A study of the institutional change associated with the shift from open outcry to electronic trading in financial futures. I conducted an in-depth ethnography of a face-to-face trading organization, comparing it to 4 electronic trading firms. My key finding is that what appears to be a technological change in how traders make markets is actually a deep, institutional change in the actors, objects, and activities involved in making markets. Electronic trading changes what counts as information, the expertise of traders, and the relationships between individuals and the market.

Electronic trading is to open outcry what the internet is to the telephone. Not just a more efficient way to do the same thing, but potentially a whole new thing altogether…

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Documents, Links, and Hijinks

CV, Resume, or what I do in a nutshell

CV - academic (.pdf)
Resume - Professional (.pdf)

Volunteer or give, it will make you feel better


DonorsChoose.org. This is where my partner works. It is an educational nonprofit devoted to obtaining resources for underfunded public schools.
VolunteerMatch. VM is a first stop for volunteering. You can plug in your interests, your zip code, and it will return things to do for a week, a week, or a lifetime.
Idealist.org. More than a place to volunteer, Idealist is probably the number one place my students go for career work. It is a kind of warehouse for nonprofit jobs, internships, volunteering, and the like.
Kaboom! Kaboom builds playgrounds in areas where they are needed and supported by the community. You can participate in a one-day build (though the interface kinda stinks), and they could use your money as well.
Partners in Health. This organization is just making the world better and healthier by attending to HIV and tuberculosis patients in the most impoverished places in the world. More here.

This site is hand-woven, and heavily borrows from the wonderful blueprint framwork. Rock on, grids!

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