Size matters for financial trading success: study
LONDON (Reuters) - In the testosterone-fueled world of financial trading, it appears that hormones do rule and size really does matter, British researchers said on Monday.
Their study found that experienced traders with the longest ring fingers made more than three times the amount of money as did their less well endowed colleagues.
The length of a person’s ring finger relative to the index finger may be a measure of prenatal exposure to male sex hormones or androgens, which could boost the concentration and reflexes needed to make trades on sudden notice, they said.
So no matter how much a trader knows about markets, the key to winning trades may in large part stem from biology, John Coates and colleagues at the University of Cambridge wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The success and longevity of traders exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens further suggests that financial markets may select for biological traits rather than rational expectations,” they wrote.
Previous research has also tied finger length to aggression, fertility, sporting ability and increased confidence and quickened reaction times, the researchers said.
In their experiment, the researchers studied 44 men from a trading floor in London, some of whom earned more than 4 million each year. All were involved in the kind of trading that involved rapid decisions and quick reactions.
After measuring the men’s fingers, the researchers correlated the traders’ profits and losses over the preceding 20 months and found that longer ring fingers predicted higher long term profits and how long he stuck it out in the business.
Experienced traders with the longest “ring” fingers — the digit beside the smallest finger — earned 828,000 on average compared to 154,000 for men with the shortest fingers, and average overall annual earnings of 537,000.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Ralph Boulton)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
By Martha Kerr NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - As a woman’s menstrual cycle shortens with advancing age, her odds of becoming pregnant decreases, Swedish investigators report in the journal Fertility and Sterility. Dr. Thomas Brodin of Malarsjukhuset in Eskilstuna, Sweden, and colleagues analyzed successful pregnancy and delivery rates in 6,271 in vitro fertilization cycles in terms of
Full Post: Fertility declines with shorter menstrual cycles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women with high levels of estrogen not only look and feel prettier — but they may act on those feelings by moving from man to man, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Estrogen, the so-called female hormone, affects fertility and has been shown to make women dress more provocatively and show more thrill-seeking behavior. Dr.
Full Post: Feeling pretty? Hormones may lead to more..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fathers who are involved in their children’s prenatal care are more likely to be around for the long haul, whether they marry the child’s mother or not, new study findings suggest. The findings, say researchers, suggest that such early involvement — even more so than marriage, per se — is crucial
Full Post: Dad’s involvement during pregnancy is key: study
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulatory staff have questioned whether there are enough data to show that Female Health Co’s latest condom for women prevents pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, according to documents released on Tuesday. The Chicago-based company is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its new version, called the FC2 Female Condom,
Full Post: FDA staff debate data for new female condom
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LONDON (Reuters) - Babies born by Caesarean section are more likely to develop asthma than children delivered naturally, Swiss researchers said on Tuesday. There has been conflicting evidence on the link between asthma and C-sections but the researchers said the number of children involved in their study and a long monitoring period strengthened their results. The findings
Full Post: Researchers link C-section babies to asthma risk