At least according to Cambridge University Business School's John Coates and highlighted this week on the Naked Scientists podcast. He published findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled, "Second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts success among high-frequency financial traders." The second to fourth digit ratio refers to your fingers: traders who had ring fingers longer than index fingers were more successful and stayed in the business longer. The study looked at traders in the pit where quick reflexes are important.A longer ring finger indicates more pre-natal testosterone exposure. The thinking is that this exposure lead to better reflexes necssary for traders who are trying to time the market to the second. And yes, check out athletes...they tend to have longer ring fingers as well. Don't despair if you are a long term investor...you won't be handicapped by having a long index finger.
Of coure the first thing I did after hearing this is look at my own hand and sure enough, my ring finger is a good deal longer than my index finger. I snapped a picture of my hand with my webcam (while my cat Hale-Bopp was lounging on me). I guess I wasted my longer finger on sports when I could have been a Wall Street millionaire!
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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5 comments:
Yes, hale, I did the same thing while reading your blog.... my ring finger is longer than my index finger. I had always heard that it reflected higher intelligence. I like that explanation better.
I did some searching online. In a book by Kingsley Browne, he stated that: "Females exposed to higher-than-usual levels of testosterone in utero tend to be somewhat masculinized temperamentally, exhibiting more male-like behavior."
Huh? I *really* don't like that thought. I'll stick with the first explanation.
ohhh.. I'm smart.. I'm smart!!!
I am a bloody genius! Yep, I am...thank you, Hale!
My ring finger on my right hand is a little longer than my index, and on my left hand even a little more so. I have never heard of this before. This could lead to RF (ring finger) envy. If this is true, why am I broke?
For some reason I looked at my left hand...its even more pronounced there...my index finger is barely up to the bottom of the fingernail of my ring finger on that one.
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