SMRs and AMRs

Monday, April 14, 2008

Male Sex Hormone May Affect Stock Trades

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The hormone that drives male aggression and sexual interest also seems able to boost short term success at finance. But what seems to start out well can turn bad, with elevated testosterone levels over several days possibly leading to irrational risk-taking, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge in England.

''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,'' said John M. Coates, lead author of a study appearing in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Such a change would produce a much more stable financial system, said Coates, a research fellow in the university's department of physiology, development and neuroscience.

Coates and Joe Herbert studied male financial traders in London, taking saliva samples in the morning and evening. They found that levels of two hormones, testosterone and cortisol, affected traders.

Those with higher levels of testosterone in the morning were more likely to make an unusually big profit that day, the researchers found.

(Continued here.)

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