Rogue Hormones

Trading Psychology

IF THE losses at UBS that surfaced this month were caused by a “rogue” trader, would that make his colleagues stable? Not if research being undertaken by John Coates, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and a former derivatives trader, is anything to go by. His work suggests that hormones drive investment decisions to a far…

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Why Do This?

Trading Psychology

In the past I have written about prediction and the fact that we are absolutely crap at predicting the future. Despite this and despite the ease with which people are held to account for their predictions we still get this sort of stuff. This graphic tracks the predictions about the price of oil made by…

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Why Do This?

Trading Psychology

In the past I have written about prediction and the fact that we are absolutely crap at predicting the future. Despite this and despite the ease with which people are held to account for their predictions we still get this sort of stuff.         This graphic tracks the predictions about the price…

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Alpha Or Beta

Trading Psychology1 Comment

WSJ:One evening a week, a group of CEOs meets in a Manhattan psychiatrist’s office and engages in an ancient ritual. Ostensibly, it is a support group. Inevitably, it becomes a battle for dominance.”Whenever you put alpha males together, the most aggressive will overpower the others,” says T. Byram Karasu, the veteran psychiatrist who has run…

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