They’re cheap, they’re kitschy, and investment bankers love them

When strolling the hallways of his first internship in investment banking, Alex R. kept noticing small trinkets crowding the desks of executives and junior analysts alike, as if each workstation grew its own skyline made up of knickknacks. Some were simple: glass prisms the size of a coffee mug with a company’s name and the bank’s logo etched on the surface. But others were much flashier. Some were adorned with 3D-printed elements, floating features, and specialized lighting. The awards’ silhouettes sometimes took the form of the Bitcoin logo, a game console, or even a Japanese temple. [Photo: Courtesy HV Recognition] Alex, who is now a full-time investment banker in New York City, wondered what these eccentric objects were. He sheepishly broached the topic with an analyst on the team, not wanting to look uninitiated. “I asked them, ‘What are these things?’” he tells Fast Company. (Alex’s last name as well as those of other bankers mentioned have been redacted due to fear of professional repercussions.) For an industry whose public image is one of intensity (see the ego-driven, viciously competitive characters in Industry or the Wolf of Wall Street), the idea of the grown men behi…