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Are good financial traders born, not made?

By Linda Geddes

14 January 2009

SUCCESSFUL financial traders may be born, not made. Men who excel at fast-paced financial trading may have been exposed to higher levels of testosterone in the uterus than their less successful colleagues.

Last year, John Coates at the University of Cambridge and colleagues found that traders who started the day with elevated testosterone made more money than those who didn’t. He wondered whether another effect could also contribute: individuals who had higher exposure to testosterone in the uterus are more likely to feel the effects of the hormone in later life.

Coates recruited 49 male “high-frequency” traders from the City…

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