The Evolution of the Finance Bro
Plus: a cheeky merch brand run by the offspring of a finance legend and JFK Jr.’s nearly naked turn in George you've never heard about
The finance bro has not changed as much as he thinks he has. Sure, the logos are different, the uniform is more casual, the habits have been updated. Bear Stearns becomes Citadel. BBM becomes Signal. Cocaine becomes NAD. Squash becomes padel.
But what changed is where it all shows up. This “culture” (are we calling it that?) used to stay inside offices and on trading floors. Now it’s in everything else. The 6 a.m. training block before the desk. The cold plunge between calls. The padel court in Miami between meetings. The supplement drawer that travels with him. The Thursday flight out, laptop still open. And the language moved too. It’s all framed as optimization now. Sleep, recovery, output. Repeat! It shows up in Industry. It gets explained on Odd Lots and Unhedged. It gets broken down on TBPN and Money Stuff, and then people start trying it on. There’s even a merch brand, run by the offspring of a finance giant, packaging the whole thing into something you can wear. (And I tell you all about that today after the paywall).
The older version of the finance bro was obvious. The one today is harder to spot because it borrows the language of something else. It looks like discipline or reads like taste or presents as a life that is fully under control. It’s none of those things. It’s still Leonardo Dicaprio pounding his chest in the The Wolf of Wall Street or Ben Affleck addressing a room of junior bankers in Boiler Room or Michael Douglas explaining greed in a shareholder meeting in Wall Street, just dressed up well enough that people stop questioning it.
Along with a finance-coded merch story so good you’ll be reaching for your credit card, there’s one about the plot line Ryan Murphy must have been crazy (or blind) not to include in Love Story, involving JFK Jr. putting a nearly naked photo of himself in his own magazine. There’s also Monaco’s Rose Ball dance floor this past weekend, the UES institutions that can’t seem to decide if they’re closing or not, and more. Midweek, but we’re keeping it interesting here at RPS (always).
