Traders get glamour magazine

The days of red braces and expense accounts are back!

The excesses of the financial markets in the 1980s and 1990s were the stuff of legend.

Huge salaries, massive risks and even bigger egos produced headlines and court cases.

Then the internet bubble burst, and scandals such as Enron seemed to herald the arrival of more sober days.

Not quite. Trader Monthly is a new magazine aimed at those in the financial markets who still work hard and party hard, and see no reason to apologise.

Big dogs

Aimed at 30-years old males with an average annual salary of $400,000 (£206,000) it provides a mix of cars, models and advice.

"We tell our readers how to make money and how to have fun spending it," founder Magnus Greaves told Reuters.

It contributes to a hostile work environment Linda Friedman, Stowell & Friedman law firm

As well as profiles of successful traders, it also gives advice on how and where to bet and take risks.

In one article, a trader called Duke is let loose on a race track with a sports car; another asks "Will testicular cancer kill me?".

Lonely? Try Trader Dater. Got an outrageous expense bill? Send it in.

"We are looking at an industry that is very testosterone driven," Randall Lane, editor of Trader Monthly told Reuters news agency. "This is a group that is 97% male."

Boy's own?

Founder Mr Greaves is well placed to tap into his market - he first came to London as a 19-year old and worked as a futures trader.

In 1998, he set up an electronic trading company called MacFutures. Selling it in 2003 has allowed him to finance the magazine venture.

"I looked at trader magazines and men's lifestyle magazines, and thought: 'Wow! Why not put the two together?'," Mr Greaves explained.

Critics of the magazine say that pandering to such masculine interests does nothing to modernise today's financial market place.

"It's offensive," Linda Friedman, a partner of Chicago law firm Stowell & Friedman.

"It contributes to a hostile work environment. It results in women being treated as sex objects and denied opportunities."

"It reinforces all the stereotypes we have fought so hard against."