Chapter 1
Stereotyping the Retail Currency Trader
Stereotyping people is something I do not feel comfortable doing. It mainly comes from being wrong in the past about people whom I bucketed as being one way, only to find out they were not at all what I thought.
My biggest blunder occurred when I was offered a job at Citibank in London in 1991. I remember my wife and I being warned that the British were hard to get to know. They liked to keep to themselves. We would be better off living in an expatriate community and for our young sons to go to the American school.
When my wife and I went over to look for a place to live, we were sure we should live where the American school was located and settle in what we thought was our comfort zone—in a place where we would be happiest.
We arrived in London in early February 1991 and faced something we were very accustomed to—snow. It was the blizzard of 1991, and although the eight or so inches did not approach the snowfalls we experienced in the northeast United States, it crippled the city. Despite the distractions from shoveling out the family car, going sledding with their children, and stocking up on supplies, my new work colleagues made a special effort to immediately welcome me.
My wife and I both realized our preconceived thoughts about the people we would meet in our new home—our new country—bore no resemblance to the people we met. It was then we realized we did not want to live overseas in an American enclave. We wanted to do the ...
