Re: Interesting hormone study from WSJ today....

April 15, 2008

Hmmm.

Testosterone and Financial Trading

All those cliches about " alpha males " on the trading floors of financial markets -- not to mention those arenas' reputation for rampant male chauvinism -- may have some scientific basis. Coates, a financial trader-turned-neuroscientist at Cambridge University, and his team tested the testosterone and cortisol levels of 17 male traders in London over eight business days, and the results of those hormone tests are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " Traders had an above-average gain on the days their testosterone was above average, " Mr. Coates tells Nature. And " in 14 out of the 17 cases, the traders earned more money on days they had elevated morning levels of the hormone, " the magazine says.

Mr. Coates initiated the study after observing how frenzied traders got when they were making a lot and how deeply depressed they became when things went bad. " It was sort of classic manic behavior, " he says, and he thinks the testosterone is linked to the traders' success. But study co-author Joe Herbert says the results are only strong enough to correlate the two phenomena and not enough to declare one causes the other. Still, Mr. Coates tells the Associated Press he thinks the higher testosterone levels can lead to irrational risk-taking: " If people want to get practical, it would be good for both banks and the financial system as a whole if we had more women and older men in the markets. "

Reply-To: <rhythmicliving >

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:35:24 -0500

To: <rhythmicliving >

Subject: Re: Thyroid and progesterone

I'll try to find the answers to your questions (about the thyroid enzyme that stimulates pregnenolone to make progesterone) from PCCA; hopefully I can get ahold of the speaker, as he is a PCCA consultant.

Virginia

--

" The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. " --

April 15, 2008

Hmmm.

Testosterone and Financial Trading

All those cliches about " alpha males " on the trading floors of financial markets -- not to mention those arenas' reputation for rampant male chauvinism -- may have some scientific basis. Coates, a financial trader-turned-neuroscientist at Cambridge University, and his team tested the testosterone and cortisol levels of 17 male traders in London over eight business days, and the results of those hormone tests are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " Traders had an above-average gain on the days their testosterone was above average, " Mr. Coates tells Nature. And " in 14 out of the 17 cases, the traders earned more money on days they had elevated morning levels of the hormone, " the magazine says.

Mr. Coates initiated the study after observing how frenzied traders got when they were making a lot and how deeply depressed they became when things went bad. " It was sort of classic manic behavior, " he says, and he thinks the testosterone is linked to the traders' success. But study co-author Joe Herbert says the results are only strong enough to correlate the two phenomena and not enough to declare one causes the other. Still, Mr. Coates tells the Associated Press he thinks the higher testosterone levels can lead to irrational risk-taking: " If people want to get practical, it would be good for both banks and the financial system as a whole if we had more women and older men in the markets. "

Reply-To: <rhythmicliving >

Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:35:24 -0500

To: <rhythmicliving >

Subject: Re: Thyroid and progesterone

I'll try to find the answers to your questions (about the thyroid enzyme that stimulates pregnenolone to make progesterone) from PCCA; hopefully I can get ahold of the speaker, as he is a PCCA consultant.

Virginia

--

" The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. " --

April 15, 2008

I read this article also and had to laugh because my husband is on T and is a

Fin Advisor

(does not do daily trading though). Thought it was pretty interesting. I've read

a lot about

T and when men win in some kind of race their T does go up. So sometimes I

wonder

which comes first, High T and than you win or you win and than your T goes up.

Funny.

Karin (BIGBIRD)

>

> Hmmm.

>

> Testosterone and Financial Trading

> All those cliches about " alpha males " on the trading floors of financial

> markets -- not to mention those arenas' reputation for rampant male

> chauvinism -- may have some scientific basis. Coates, a financial

> trader-turned-neuroscientist at Cambridge University, and his team tested

> the testosterone and cortisol levels of 17 male traders in London over eight

> business days, and the results of those hormone tests are being published in

> the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. " Traders had an

> above-average gain on the days their testosterone was above average, " Mr.

> Coates tells Nature. And " in 14 out of the 17 cases, the traders earned more

> money on days they had elevated morning levels of the hormone, " the magazine

> says.

>

> Mr. Coates initiated the study after observing how frenzied traders got when

> they were making a lot and how deeply depressed they became when things went

> bad. " It was sort of classic manic behavior, " he says, and he thinks the

> testosterone is linked to the traders' success. But study co-author Joe

> Herbert says the results are only strong enough to correlate the two

> phenomena and not enough to declare one causes the other. Still, Mr. Coates

> tells the Associated Press he thinks the higher testosterone levels can lead

> to irrational risk-taking: " If people want to get practical, it would be

> good for both banks and the financial system as a whole if we had more women

> and older men in the markets. "

>

> Reply-To: <rhythmicliving >

> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:35:24 -0500

> To: <rhythmicliving >

> Subject: Re: Thyroid and progesterone

>

> I'll try to find the answers to your questions (about the thyroid enzyme

> that stimulates pregnenolone to make progesterone) from PCCA; hopefully I

> can get ahold of the speaker, as he is a PCCA consultant.

>

> Virginia

>

> --

> " The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. "

> --

>

April 15, 2008