Former finance employee here.

We had a blanket ban on any project or program name that was even slightly insidious sounding, which is easy to do on accident when there are hundreds of projects and the name will be examined out of context by a regulator with 0 sense of humor.

While it’s possible that the “cartel” started with that intention, it’s also likely that someone thought it sounded cool at first.

I once worked with a quant that had a batch of strategies he was testing. The one that was performing the best he named ‘the front runner’

He was shocked when the firm required him to rename it & not use that name in any communication.

> which is easy to do on accident

One of the first things I did when I took over a trading team was turn off chat. Trading involves stressful, adversarial interactions with counterparties and clients. Every person and deal eventually earns a nickname. It helps nobody when those nicknames appear in writing.

Wise choice.

  it would seem most unwise to discuss your
  cartel in a chatroom named "The Cartel".

In the early 2000s, a group of corrupt Alaskan politicians literally had hats printed saying Corrupt Bastards Club [0]

Some people have odd ideas about Linguistic reclamation.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_political_corruption_pr...

It's like using "password" as your password. The people who do that think they're being original and clever.

That's silly. It is only original and clever if you replace the s with $ and a with @

Associate level, or really, really dumb Vice Presidents

In businesses that deal with economics everybody is an associate or a vice president

Except for Analysts, Managing Directors, and those at the Partner level. But OK, if that's what you'd like to believe.