This thesis sheds light on the valuation practices of financial market participants in three stages. First, a socio-historical approach outlines the conditions in which market participants operate today. The scope of buying and selling decisions has been amplified by the computerization of markets. These decisions are also increasingly taken on by a particular type of actor, due to the "asset management revolution". Secondly, the valuation practices of market participants are clarified through an analysis of the main valuation supports used: the Bloomberg Terminal, stock market indices, central bank announcements and oil benchmarks. The influence of these supports was sometimes recognized, but the context of their emergence and the modalities of this influence remained poorly identified. Thirdly, we draw out some of the implications of the power of these valuation tools for the functioning of financial markets. Produced by a handful of financial information companies, the conventions studied give these companies a quasi-regulatory role in the markets. This other facet of financial regulation, less visible than legislation, cannot be ignored in reform proposals aimed at making markets more stable or sustainable.
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 5
General introduction................................................................................................................... 7
I. Towards a sociology of financial markets ................................................................................. 10
1. A theory of financial decision-making ...................................................................................11
2. A theory of financial markets ................................................................................................ 29
3. An inquiry into the semiotic infrastructure of financial markets........................................... 69
II. Methodological journey......................................................................................................... 77
1. In search of "financiers" ........................................................................................................ 79
2. Decoding valuation pratices .................................................................................................. 89
III. A sociology of valuation practices ...................................................................................... 105
1. The new rules of the game................................................................................................... 106
2. The players and their tools .................................................................................................. 109
3. The other masters of the game..............................................................................................116
Part I. Reconfiguration of the financial "milieu" ................................................................... 118
Chapter I: The new frontiers of the financial community ................................................................119
1. The reform of Belgian financial markets: an “imperative necessity”?................................ 121
2. Do modern stock exchanges emerge from competition? Evidence from the “Belgian Big Bang”........................................................................................................................................... 147
3. The fall of European stock exchanges as trading venues .................................................... 168
Chapter II: New market leaders.................................................................................................... 172
1. Investment funds in Belgium............................................................................................... 174
Perspectives ............................................................................................................................. 254
The new “milieu” of financial valuation ......................................................................................... 257
Part II. Financial valuation supports ...................................................................................... 259
Chapter III: The Bloomberg Terminal ............................................................................................. 261
1. Bloomberg and the GameStop saga: The fear of stock market democracy ......................... 262
2. The market according to Bloomberg: a wrong frame? ........................................................ 285
Chapter IV: Stock market indices in the making ............................................................................. 295
1. The engineering of stock market indices: winners and losers ............................................. 296
Chapter V: Stock market indices in the trading room...................................................................... 316
1. The Semiosis of Stock Market Indices: Taking Charles Sanders Peirce to a Trading Room 317
Chapter VI: The semiotic turn of central banks............................................................................... 335
1. Convincing the market. Belgian central bankers at the test of globalization ...................... 336
Chapter VII: The mystery of ambiguous central bank announcements........................................... 360
1. How central banks cope with price instabilities: Ambiguous inflation targets as
organizational compromise ......................................................................................................... 361
Chapter VIII: The financial price of oil ........................................................................................... 381
1. Sociology of the Price of Crude Oil .................................................................................... 383
General conclusion ................................................................................................................. 394
The sociological foundations of financial conventions ................................................................... 394
From financial conventions to market regulation............................................................................ 399
Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 415
I. Comics trip: “Le voyage du capital” ....................................................................................... 415
II. Methodological note on Belgian investment funds ............................................................. 427
References .............................................................................................................................. 429
Articles and communications making up this thesis ....................................................................... 429
References quoted in this thesis ................................................................................................... 430