海角大神

The drop in value of the British pound against the dollar has prompted a joke making the rounds among currency traders, I gather from the July 18 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek: 鈥淏oris and Nigel talked voters into leaving the European Union, and now cable is so low you鈥檒l trip over it if you aren鈥檛 careful.鈥�

Huh?

Cable is currency traders鈥� slang for the exchange rate between the British pound and the US dollar: the first two currencies for which prices were updated via transatlantic cable 鈥� starting around 1866.

Note that it鈥檚 just 鈥渃able,鈥� not 鈥渢he cable.鈥� That should tip you off. The thing you might literally trip over would be 鈥渁 cable鈥� or 鈥渢he cable.鈥澛�

And cable is not interchangeable with 鈥減ound.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 specifically the price of the pound in dollars,鈥� BusinessWeek said. 鈥淎nyone who uses terms like 鈥楥able-yen鈥� or 鈥榚uro-cable鈥� is to be dismissed as an amateur,鈥� one guide to 鈥渇orex jargon鈥� notes sternly. Forex jargon 鈥� currency traders鈥� lingo 鈥� has traditionally drawn heavily on Cockney rhyming slang, plus terms borrowed from bookmakers and other casual abbreviations, such as 鈥測ard鈥� (for 鈥渂illion鈥�), from the French 尘颈濒濒颈补谤诲.听

In this world, the sentence 鈥淭he Old Lady just bought half a yard of cable and there are plenty of bids for Bill and Ben鈥� makes perfect sense.聽

Translation: The Bank of England (the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street) just bought half a billion dollars鈥� worth of sterling, and there鈥檚 interest in buying Japanese yen 鈥� 鈥淏ill and Ben鈥� is rhyming slang for yen. (The original 鈥淏ill and Ben鈥� were puppets in a popular children鈥檚 TV series during the 1950s. It doesn鈥檛 鈥渕ean鈥� anything. It just rhymes.)聽

This colorful lingo is on the way out, though. For one thing, there are fewer Cockneys around. Traders鈥� demographics are shifting. As Nia Williams reported for Reuters a few years ago, currency traders nowadays are often graduates of top universities. Time was, though, when lads with little formal education could start in a back office and work their way up to making a fortune.聽

鈥淭hey were the 鈥榖arrow boys鈥� coming off the market stalls,鈥� as one trader told Ms. Williams 鈥� vendors selling fruit or vegetables out of handcarts. 鈥淚t was more working class and with that came the language of the street.鈥� Some dealers in those days 鈥� 30 years ago 鈥� owned produce and flower stalls, too.

Technology has wrought changes as well, as in almost every field, it seems, where the focus has shifted from real things 鈥� whether quid or quinces 鈥� to data on screens. Electronic trading has largely supplanted cheerful banter over the telephone.聽

A trader in another branch of finance, in his early 30s, whom I talked with recently, noted that over the past year or so, the last vestiges of 鈥渙pen outcry,鈥� or face-to-face trading, had pretty much disappeared from his own field.聽

Was I imagining things, or did I hear a note of wistfulness in his voice as he said this?