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Why The Girl In Trading Is Better Than Everyone Else
 

GMngmt's picture
O
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 1:00am
Female Trader

“There she is, that beautiful blonde from Wharton”, you say to your colleague as she comes in. She looks amazing and smells great despite being the only female in the trading pit. Yet she has a character of class, trades gracefully, and a strong resilience. After some time of trapping flies with your mouth, you stop gawking as your colleague leans over and says, “…not only is she like a nine, I’ve heard she’s the best trader at her firm!” You give a sudden and noticed, “What?” Its true, research shows in fact that females are better at trading than males but now a famous London HF manager prefers them and a renowned Forex trader gives her insights as to why…

Lex Van Dam, a former GS trader, Partner at Hampstead Capital HF, and notably from the BBC series Million Dollar Traders bluntly puts it,

...females tend to be statistically better traders than males.”

Where does he come off saying this? Two reasons…

1. Single men can be very overconfident in their ability, “…in areas such as finance, males are more overconfident than females.”
2. Women trade less frequently, 45% less yielding a gain of +.93% return over men.

Van Dam goes on to say that, “…there is no difference between the analytical ability of male and female traders.” He also thinks that in ten years there will be many more female traders on WS given the past financial crises.

What do you think the implications of a co-ed trading industry would be?

ForexDiva, Kiana Danial supports Van Dam’s reasoning saying that females have the unique talent of multi-tasking while waiting for trades to materialize. They also admit mistakes easier and don’t have an alpha-male complex as she says,

...most of the losses in Forex trading come after huge success.”

She goes on to cite two studies, to support her own statements that females are more risk averse and that female overall investment performance is superior to males.

1. A New York Times article titled, How Men’s Overconfidence Hurts Them As Investors gives a summary of a few different studies on why females are more risk-averse.
2. According to a Vanguard Investment Counseling and Research study of 100K portfolios, females outperformed males by 7% in the period from 2008 to 2009.

For a further scientific explanation read, Women Make Better Investors Than Men, But Why?

Women, do you feel you have any other natural advantages that men do not?

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. Chabo11 posted on May 16th , Are Women Traders Better Than Men on a Time magazine article by Gary Belsky who cited a Quarterly Journal of Economics piece by Brad M. Barber and Terrance Odean from 2001. Coincidently, the supporting claims I used in Van Dam’s reasoning were pulled from that same study. Also, counter to chabo11’s perspective, I’ve vindicated reasons number one and five of their claims. However, I must confess that I did find all of this ex ante of their post and to conclude, my last question is men, what's your opinion on all of this? If you disagree, then let's hear it!
Who Am I? | See what GMngmt is all about at About.Me
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Comments

SonnyZH's picture

Let's say hello to the

HF
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:04pm

Let's say hello to the shit-show, brethren.

The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.

fearless's picture

I think it comes down to risk

O
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:07pm

I think it comes down to risk tolerance. Its the same idea as to why stock brokers cold call only men and ignore women. Men are more greedy.

trazer985's picture

take the % of women of the

ST
(King Kong, 1,745
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 3:13pm

take the % of women of the total population, who are traders, then take the same top % of men of the total population, in trading, and see who gives the better PNL.

Then list every fucking scientific and economic development in the past 10 millennia...

Macro Arbitrage's picture

Given that it is coming out

HF
(King Kong, 1,369
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:12pm

Given that it is coming out of the mouth of Lex Van Dam, I would discredit everything that he mentioned.

"I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

SonnyZH's picture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/bus

HF
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:27pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/24/gle...

The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.

BTbanker's picture

Basically, from a business

IB
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:45pm

Basically, from a business perspective, what I am getting is, in a nutshell, with all due respect, I personally think, after we put it all together, the fact of the matter is, when it is all said and done, at the end of the day, net net bottom line, ultimately,

It is what it is.

"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan

Financier4Hire's picture

fearless: I think it comes

PE
(King Kong, 1,082
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:44pm
fearless:

I think it comes down to risk tolerance. Its the same idea as to why stock brokers cold call only men and ignore women. Men are more greedy.

What cave did you crawl out of, amigo ? Men are more greedy ? That's so silly. Women are the greedy bunch. Women lie, cheat, and steal in a frenzy. Do you honestly believe Marisa Mayer, Yahoo's new CEO is worth the $120 MM her compensation package is ?

What about that JP Morgan clown Ina Drew who quit with $30 MM in her pocket (two years comp.) after losing her bank over $2 Bn. Very convenient for her. You get a bitch like that sucking you high and dry and you're gonna bite the dust.

Grow up, kid.

"The future isn't what it used to be "-Yogi Berra

"Perhaps you've failed to take into account my hidden assets"-007


The coolest cat on WSO
My BLOG

Financier4Hire's picture

I'd like to add, for the

PE
(King Kong, 1,082
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:54pm

I'd like to add, for the record, that women who are in trading develop and display the same "alpha-male factor" you'd ordinarily see in men. Traditional gender differences blunder on the trading /execution floor. Bitches get just as aggressive, controlling, and "over-confident" as any guy doing that same job. That's what Ms. Forex Diva is not telling you. She knows the public as an outsider has no idea of it.

"The future isn't what it used to be "-Yogi Berra

"Perhaps you've failed to take into account my hidden assets"-007


The coolest cat on WSO
My BLOG

Zafrynex's picture

Women need to overcome more

(Baboon, 139
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 1:58pm

Women need to overcome more hurdles to become traders.

Obviously the average women trading is better.

illuminati's picture

It doesn't take a medical

(Monkey, 57
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 2:47pm

It doesn't take a medical doctor to know that females (physiologically) are far more risk-averse than males. That doesn't make them the best performing traders, but it sure as hell doesn't make them go all rogue the way that UBS trader did.

JDimon's picture

Zafrynex: Women need to

(Orangutan, 252
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 3:32pm
Zafrynex:

Women need to overcome more hurdles to become traders.

Obviously the average women trading is better.

This is what I figured while reading the article. Still though, interesting. As someone who has no experience in trading, I can't prove anything the study said is false

There is already a book on you. That book is already being written. And if I talked to your friends, your teachers, your professionals, your family, I would know so much about you I wouldn't even have to meet you. You write the book the way you want to be

GS's picture

I think that both sexes are

ST
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 3:48pm

I think that both sexes are adequately base, immoral and duplicitous.

Scott Irish's picture

BTbanker: Basically, from a

O
(Orangutan, 369
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 4:23pm
BTbanker:

Basically, from a business perspective, what I am getting is, in a nutshell, with all due respect, I personally think, after we put it all together, the fact of the matter is, when it is all said and done, at the end of the day, net net bottom line, ultimately,

It is what it is.

This,

fifteen's picture

GMngmt: Single men can be

O
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 4:45pm
GMngmt:

Single men can be very overconfident

Is it because single men just don't have a woman by his side to crash his dignity and humiliate the shit outta him 24/7?

Simmo1985's picture

I would like to see this

(Chimp, 8
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 5:17pm

I would like to see this study applied to professional traders only, and I am interested to see how the results change when compared to the rest of the population.

I have seen this or similar studies before, but they are usually based of a sample of the general population, encapsulating Joe Bloggs who is managing his own finances, with little to no finance knowledge or training. If you conduct an experiment where a pool of non-finance employed men and women were trading, I would not be surprised in the slightest to see that the women outperform, due to the lower risk tolerance that is mentioned above.

However, I think that if you conducted the same study on professional traders, there would generally be no statistically significant relationship between performance and gender.

TylerT's picture

Scientifically they certainly

CO
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 5:45pm
leveredarb's picture

I dont even know where to

(King Kong, 1,231
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 6:26pm
Kenny Powers's picture

SonnyZH: http://www.guardian.

O
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 6:37pm

pick em, lick em, stick em

aceon's picture

bahaha I recognize that girl

ST
(Monkey, 51
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 6:51pm
Nebular's picture

Of course women are better

 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 7:18pm
Interest.ed's picture

because women are better gold

 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 8:13pm
Financier4Hire's picture

Nebular: Of course women are

PE
(King Kong, 1,082
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 8:42pm

"The future isn't what it used to be "-Yogi Berra

"Perhaps you've failed to take into account my hidden assets"-007


The coolest cat on WSO
My BLOG

Financier4Hire's picture

Interest.ed: because women

PE
(King Kong, 1,082
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 8:46pm

"The future isn't what it used to be "-Yogi Berra

"Perhaps you've failed to take into account my hidden assets"-007


The coolest cat on WSO
My BLOG

illuminati's picture

It's when you know "she

(Monkey, 57
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 9:04pm
Bondarb's picture

in the macro world female

HF
(Neanderthal, 2,283
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 9:04pm
Domino's picture

Fuck women Literally

(Baboon, 134
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 9:27pm
honeyoak87's picture

To me this seems like a

 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 11:01pm

Morpheus: Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

Financier4Hire's picture

honeyoak87: To me this seems

PE
(King Kong, 1,082
 
Points)
 on 9/23/12 at 11:22pm

"The future isn't what it used to be "-Yogi Berra

"Perhaps you've failed to take into account my hidden assets"-007


The coolest cat on WSO
My BLOG

blastoise's picture

men are better than women at

O
 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 1:25pm
UFOinsider's picture

Is anyone here a female

O
(Human, 10,333
 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 2:21pm

YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...

seabird's picture

Wow so some risk averse

PE
(King Kong, 1,480
 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 3:26pm

“...all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

- Schopenhauer

PetEng's picture

How fucking stupid is this? A

O
(Gorilla, 746
 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 3:52pm
honeyoak87's picture

Financier4Hire: honeyoak87:

 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 6:38pm

Morpheus: Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

E-dizzle's picture

/agreed with some of the

 
Points)
 on 9/24/12 at 7:42pm
Sugar and Spice n evrthing nice 's picture

tssk tssk tssk..why so angry?

(Chimp, 4
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 3:58am
GMngmt's picture

Great comments and insight

O
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 8:35am

Who Am I? | See what GMngmt is all about at About.Me

BlackHat's picture

TylerT: Women have more white

HF
 
Points)
 on 9/29/12 at 8:47am

I hate victims who respect their executioners

Follow BH & Co. on Twitter: @DumbLuckCapital
twitter.com/DumbLuckCapital

PetEng's picture

If you have an issue with the

O
(Gorilla, 746
 
Points)
 on 10/1/12 at 12:23am

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