The Theater of Finance
Finance depends on performance and narrative — remove the theater and the market ceases to exist
Roscoe argues that finance is inseparable from its performance — the theater of it. Markets do not exist independently of the narratives, media, discourse, and physical staging that constitute them. The trading pit's physical architecture — the dome, the blue-veined marble, the chalk prices, the gavel hammering — was not decoration; it was the mechanism that made prices real and deals binding. Central bankers who say 'I will do whatever it takes' are not describing reality; they are making it.
This extends beyond theatrical moments to the everyday performance of financial life: the magazine journalist eating steak at someone else's expense and writing enthusiastic copy about dot-com companies was not merely reporting the bubble — she or he was constituting it. The PR strategy of keeping journalists at lunch until 4pm so they had no time to research was a performance-management technique for shaping the narrative that created the market.
The implication is that financial media, financial education, and financial discourse — including podcasts about investing — are not observers of markets. They are participants in constructing the shared beliefs and performances that make markets work. This is not cynical: it is a structural feature of any social system that depends on shared belief. But it changes how you evaluate financial information: every source has a role in the performance.
- Finance requires continuous performance to exist — prices, deals, and market authority depend on shared belief enacted through ritual and narrative.
- Financial media is not a neutral reporter of market reality; it is a constitutive participant in creating it.
- Every actor in the financial system plays a role: central bankers, journalists, analysts, and podcasters all shape the performance.
- The physical staging of markets — trading floors, suits, exchanges — is not incidental; it materialises and legitimises financial authority.
- Understanding the performative dimension of finance gives you leverage over narratives that would otherwise seem like objective reporting.
- Identify the performance layer in any financial eventWhen evaluating market events, identify the narrative and theatrical elements: what is being staged, who is the audience, and what belief is being performed into existence? Central bank statements, earnings calls, and fund manager letters all have a performative dimension that affects their market impact.Pro tipAsk not just 'what information does this contain?' but 'what is this performance trying to make real?'
- Map the interests of the narrative producersFor any financial narrative — media coverage, analyst reports, podcast content, PR — identify who is producing it and what they stand to gain from shaping the audience's beliefs. This is not conspiracy; it is basic media literacy applied to financial content.Pro tipThe PR strategy of lunch-to-deadline is a clean example: no malice required, just a structural incentive that systematically biases financial journalism.WarningAvoid sliding into conspiracy thinking — most narrative bias is structural and incentive-driven, not orchestrated deception.
- Distinguish information from performancePractice separating the informational content of a financial statement from its performative function. A central bank rate decision contains information; the governor's press conference language is primarily performance — designed to shape expectations and behavior, not to describe a pre-existing reality.WarningThe performative elements often have larger market effects than the informational content — do not underweight them.
- Notice how your own participation constructs the marketRecognise that your reading, sharing, and acting on financial information makes you a participant in the performance — not a passive observer. Retail investors on WallStreetBets are not just reacting to markets; they are performing them into a different shape. This is power, but also responsibility.Pro tipThe most sophisticated market participants understand they are shaping the thing they are participating in — not just adapting to it.
During the dot-com bubble, PR firms would take financial journalists to long boozy lunches, keeping them until 4pm — too late for proper research before deadline. The journalist received a press release and a conversation with enthusiastic management, and wrote enthusiastic copy.
Mario Draghi's 2012 declaration that the ECB would do 'whatever it takes' to save the Euro stopped the Eurozone crisis without the ECB spending a single euro — the performance itself was the intervention.
The GameStop squeeze of 2021 was partly a coordinated performance — memes, jargon, anti-hero mythology (Martin Shkreli as god), and anti-establishment narrative that constituted a community capable of moving markets.
Roscoe developed this lens partly through his own experience as a journalist during the dot-com bubble — eating free steak, writing uncritical copy, and only realising years later how orchestrated the performance was. The more academic grounding came from sociologists of finance, particularly Donald MacKenzie's work on how financial models are performative rather than descriptive.