This may be late but I am new here, also a lady, wife, mother and former Marine... and be assured that we are perfectly capable of doing nearly all things men can do and can do quite a few things men can't... Many of us are also smart enough to choose not to do some things men do. As far as trading... I can't speak for anyone else but it's the best career move I've ever made.
I'm interested in hearing points of view about trading from educated women; preferably from women that don't need or want a man's financial support. Post here or drop me a line. Your gender shouldn't matter when it comes to trading however we all are aware of chemical and wiring differences between males and females. My main interest is how women traders operate, from gathering information, to applying it in markets. I'm an equities trader. Thanks. Cool Thread Mrs. S Ch. Insp. Clouseau
Women are grossly underestimated in every field and cut off from career opportunities. This is more the case in finance. Men are scared they eventually are going to take over their job and career. Sad but true reality. / Looking forward to see u ladies having plenty of success with trading.
"Our prediction, then, is clear: we expect men, the more overconfident group, to trade more actively than women and, in doing so, to detract from their net return performance more. As reported in Barber and Odean (1999b), we find that this prediction holds true. Men trade 45 percent more actively than do women (76.9 percent turnover annually versus 52.8 percent). And men reduce their net annual returns through trading by 0.94 percent more than do women. (Men underperform their âbuy-and-holdâportfolios by 2.652 percent annually; women underperform their âbuy-and-holdâportfolios by 1.716 percent annually.) The differences in the turnover and performance of men and women are highly statistically significant and robust to the introduction of other demographic variables such as marital status, age, and income." http://www.behaviouralfinance.net/regret/BaOd99.pdf
One of my first bosses was female, and when I told her that I was leaving her group she threw me up against the wall in her office. I was hoping to get laid but she was pretty mad. I admired her, though. She introduced me to the phrase "balls to the wall". I can't say that for most of my other female colleagues, however. One woman came into my office crying hysterically. I thought someone had died, but she just needed someone to get the spider out of her car (driver's side) before she headed out for lunch. When the work gets demanding, I'm afraid that most women cry, jabber, or put in a discrimination claim.
Rodin, Thanks for your words and insight. Good luck with your future hedge fund work and training. I'll make sure to study and train even harder now. ciao`, Clouseau
Some nice posts in this thread. The boy/girl thing is a traditional muse. Looking back over three generations of family investing, my conclusions are that men tend to "hunt" and women "glean". My fav would be a great aunt who was single, Republican and very good compared to her relatives. Her death at 94, occurred while she still managed all of her investment accounts. She was a very pleasant person who lived off the income her wise investments generated. Looking at people I mentored, women sort of edge out the men. Some stellar guys however. For some reason women seem to be able to process better and men are more into the absolutes of the matter. I have never met any women who administer stuff in the financial industry. It is a quirk of the industry I believe. The current group of people in the local investment club is mixed. Too small to draw any conclusions, but it is worth noting that there seems not to be a separation of the group into male and female. None of the women have made any mistakes a couple of the bolder guys have dropped a ball or two. All are doing "unbelievably" by ET standards. My experience in business is that women have to perform better to get to where their professional peers reside. Too bad for business, in general.
Astute observations Grob a little OT but my husband worked in the business world for many years with some women who were good others not...one complaint he had was that women were very quick to cover their rear in the event of problems and quick to blame others rather than just work on the solution. It struck me that until Title 9 girls grew up without playing team sports and in general women then were not really good team players. Perhaps the younger generation of women who have had the benefits of playing teams sports in HS and college are now better equip to be "team" players. just a thought....
I think as trading gets more analytical, there will be much more successful women traders. I know a girl, she got her phd around '99, when a friend introduced her to me to give her some career advice (about getting into the business, etc), she came into my office, shook my hand and was blushing bright red. I had to make a fair bit of small talk just to calm her nerves. But I knew in30 mins that she is down right brilliant. And now she heads up a prop desk at an ibank (still a rarity), and her and her husband are one of my closest friends in the business, and in a way, has a career that I can only sit back and marvel. Yet right after she started her desk on the trading floor, she called over IT for some computer setup help, the techsupport people were trading her not very nicely, thinking that she is just some trading assistant (she is 5'4", early 30s, and thin). So she ended up complaining to the global head of trading over drinks (heh, I had a hand in this, since it is not in her style to complain openingly), and the firm's CTO personally came to her desk to apologize, and the floor support manager was turning white (she could have got him fired, it would be too easy). I love this story, since it doesn't matter if somebody "looks" like a trader or not, it is all about the output that counts.