Testosterone and Cortisol - Maybe the Meltdown's a Guy Thing - New York Times

[Steroid News]

Ideas & Trends Maybe the Meltdown's a Guy Thing
[SIZE=-1]New York Times, United States - 7 minutes ago[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Measuring steroid levels of traders in the City of London, they demonstrated that successful traders were heavily influenced during market booms by testosterone levels ...[/SIZE]

John M. Coates, a former trader who is now a senior research fellow in neuroscience and finance at the University of Cambridge, and a colleague, Joseph Herbert, laid it all out in the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Measuring steroid levels of traders in the City of London, they demonstrated that successful traders were heavily influenced during market booms by a positive feedback loop fueled by increased levels of testosterone.

It’s akin, Dr. Coates says, to the “winner’s effect” among male athletes, in which successive victories push testosterone levels higher and higher, giving the winner an advantage — until he begins to misjudge risk and take stupid chances. “Testosterone doesn’t create bubbles, but it exaggerates them,” Dr. Coates said. “It’s possible that bubbles are a male phenomenon.”

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