While some on Wall Street are nostalgic for the ‘good old days’ when in-person conversations or phone calls were the norm, others believe the words they type and send can come back to haunt them.  Whatever the reason, a small group of the Wall Street elite refuses to say anything substantive in an email, text or chat, and some will not communicate digitally at all.

Dimon uses email but is known to keep his replies short and factual, favoring "yes," "no" and "thank you." That behavior was evident when a U.S. Senate committee investigated JPMorgan's $6.2 billion "London Whale" derivatives trading loss. In one message, Dimon replied with a simple "I approve," showing some responsibility but giving no sense of how deeply he was involved with the decision to change risk tolerances at the bank.

Top investors, like Icahn and Buffett, rely on their assistants to send and receive messages. That doesn’t mean they’re averse to social media or the digital age - both blast out carefully curated messages on their Twitter accounts, with Icahn attracting 304,000 followers and Buffet, 1.2 million.

Ariel Investments chief John Rogers also shuns email, which he has described to associates as a "distraction." His staff reportedly filters important messages, prints them out and puts them on his chair for review, and he prefers to speak with employees in person or over the phone.