The Genes of Fabulous Financial Traders (2009)

Other researchers, too, are delving into the biomedical complexities of the individuals who make and lose fortunes by trading financial instruments. “Genetic Determinants of Financial Risk Taking,” Camelia M. Kuhnen and Joan Y. Chiao, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 2, 2009, e4362. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0004362 ( http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0004362.) (Thanks to Ferran Mir for bringing this to our […]

Garbage and Fraudulent Financial Reporting

Garbage In/Garbage Out: A Critique of Fraudulent Financial Reporting: 1987–1997 (the COSO Report) and the SEC Accounting Regulatory Process,” Abraham J. Briloff, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, vol. 12, no. 2, April 2001, pp. 125–48 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/cpac.2001.0458). The author, at the City University of New York, reports: “According to traditional wisdom, the efficiency of a sanitation department […]

The False Twinkling of Superstar CEOs

Inevitably, some researchers fixate on celebrities, neither using nor even acknowledging the power of modern bloodcomposition, finger-length, and genetics analysis tools. “Superstar CEOs,” Ulrike Malmendier and Geoffrey Tate, SSRN paper #972725, March 15, 2007. The authors, at University of California Berkeley and at University of California Los Angeles, respectively, explain: “We analyze the impact of […]

Blood, Fingers, and Genes

Researchers are delving into the blood, fingers, and genes of financial traders. Here are some of the studies that may give us insights into the success or failure of the traders, and of the researchers who study the financiers’ digits and chemical composition. Here, too, are a few earlier studies that probe the mysteries of […]

Boys Will Be Boys: Financial Trading

Manly and womanly behavior diverge when people play the stock market, hints this report: “Boys Will Be Boys: Gender, Overconfidence, and Common Stock Investmen,” Brad Barber and Terrance Odean, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 116, no. 1, February 2001, pp. 261-92 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/003355301556400). The authors, at the University of California, Davis, report: Theoretical models predict that […]