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Wall Street's Winners May Be Determined While They're Still in the Womb

Discover how day traders on Wall Street may be driven by biological factors like testosterone and digit ratios for trading success.

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Men who want to know if they'd make it as day traders on Wall Street just have to look down at the fingers, according to a new study. The longer their ring fingers are in relation to their pointer fingers, the more likely they are to have what it takes to make millions on the trading floor.

Previous research has found that the digit ratio reflects how much testosterone an unborn baby was exposed to in the womb. Those exposed to high levels of the hormone are more sensitive as adults to testosterone that creates feelings of confidence and encourages risk-taking, said study author John Coates [Bloomberg].

Coates has previously shown that traders who register the highest levels of testosterone in the morning make the most money through the course of the day, and this new study adds to the earlier work by suggesting that their advantage may have been ...

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