British scientists reported a study in the PNAS journal published on Jan 13 that the most successful traders tended to have longer ring fingers than index fingers.
"Second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts success among high-frequency financial traders"
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/2/623
The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) has been proposed as a marker of prenatal exposure to androgens, male sex hormones. Lower digit ratio (i.e., longer ring fingers than index fingers) is believed to correlate to higher prenatal androgen exposure and the subsequent testosterone level in adult.
The researchers from the University of Cambridge measured fingers of 44 male traders in the City of London who were engaged in high-frequency trading and found that 2D:4D predicted the traders' long-term profitability as well as the number of years they remained in the business. The 2D:4D also predicted the sensitivity of their profitability to increases both in circulating testosterone and in market volatility. They say that the success and longevity of traders exposed to high levels of prenatal androgens suggests that financial markets may select for biological traits rather than rational expectations.
It has been suggested that the digit ratio also correlated to health, behavior, physical ability, and sexual orientation for men. A study in the UK showed that the 2D:4D would correlate with the relative difference between numeracy and literacy abilities. In the study, children having lower 2D:4D had higher numeracy scores than literacy scores on the College Board's Scholastic Assessment Test in the UK.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17535470
As shown in the photo, my ring fingers are longer than the index fingers. I do not know whether I have profitability to be a good trader, however; researchers need the ability to process information quickly enough to keep one step ahead of competitors, as well as traders.
No comments:
Post a Comment