Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Testosterone, traders, and profits

Via Tyler Cowen, Rob Stein reports:
A new study has found that men who were programmed in the womb to be the most responsive to testosterone tend to be the most successful financial traders, providing powerful support for the influence of the hormone over their decision-making.
I don't know how much testosterone I had in the womb or have in my blood today, but my ring finger is longer than my index finger. My trading career is going on 10 years now. And I did about 20% better than my competition in 2008. Just ending positive for the year was pretty rare.

But I credit that more to being rational and disciplined, rather than crazy trading in crazy situations.

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