interesting topic, here are a few thoughts - first most "traders" are really just losing gamblers. I think women are generally much more cautious and therefore never start in the field. Also as mentioned by others, they are less likely to be exposed to trading in the first place. Still, you'd think there would be a few more women traders at the top if both sexes had equal ability. Call me sexist, but I think women tend to be a little weaker in logic and have less patience for obsessive research and therefore are not as skilled at most types of trading. On the other hand, I know women who are quite good at market timing because they are well networked and have a natural sense of the rhythm of the markets and are more detached from the ego driven win/lose mentality. Now if you really want a risque thread - why do various ethnicities appear more and less often among the top traders?
lorax that should hardly be controversial, The global wide results from IQ testing over the past 100 years should tell you most of what you need to know.
I think women are generally better suited to trading in a lot of ways or at least just as capable as men. I've been trading for three years and I've only met two or three other women traders during that time. I would say that that the ones I have met, and myself for that matter, tend to be a lot LESS emotional while they are trading. We don't seem to feel as much need to yell and scream at our monitors and make sure that every one else knows exactly what position we are in. I think that is a good thing personally. The best traders I have met are the quietest ones. In fact, the ones that seem to have the biggest egos are the ones I know aren't making money (at least consistently). It is definitely still a boys' club for the most part, and many women just don't consider trading as a career. I graduated with a science degree and stumbled upon trading by chance. I never looked back once I started and my plans to go to medical school were abandoned pretty quickly once I realized how much I loved it, but growing up I never even knew such a career existed. So all in all I would say that a lot of the responses in this thread re women not being able to control their hormones etc. are pretty ignorant, but I have known a few ignorant male traders in my time who seem almost threatened by having a female amongst them. Overall though, most of the men I have worked with have been happy to have a bit of estrogen in the office and more than willing to share their knowledge of the markets with me (esp in the beginning). So from my personal experience, if I was running my own firm, I wouldn't hesitate to hire females and would definitely try to recruit more into the business.
Does anyone know of any ethnic,women traders? The office I trade from is huge and I can't see any,in fact,I've traded from offices all over the world and have never seen any
I came across this. I don't agree or disagree with the graph: http://members.shaw.ca/hidden-talents/brain/116-sexes.html
I'm not as interested in this subject as others are but I'm not doing anything now either. I did come across this stating that only 1 in 100 chess grandmasters are women. (I used to play chess.) This article makes no sense to me except for the 1 in 100 part. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=871186 The link below is a 1 in 100 woman. I scanned it but have not read it completly. Excerpt: The brain has three tasks to carry out when contemplating a chessboard. It must comprehend the rules, as each piece moves according to its own powers and restraints. Then it must analyze potential moves, which involves envisioning different configurations on the board. Lastly, it must decide which move is most advantageous. Here the game requires critical thinking in the visual-spatial realm. Visual-spatial processing is the single biggest ability gap between men and women... How similar/dissimilar chess is to discretionary trading would be important to understand here I suppose. There is winning and losing in both however. http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2006/04/psychology-today-grandmaster.html -Stephen
The F-bombs, cussing and shit talking,practical jokes,porn,racial stuff(yeah everyone pokes at each others race in jest) probably turn off the women. And all the shit in general. get a bunch of guys together and a pile of money + testosterone and you think women want to go there?
I know a hispanic women that's a full time treasury futures trader living in Seattle (she's an ex-institutional trader...divorced from my best friend). She's consistently profitable for many years. Also, I've seen a black women trader in an office of an instutional firm in Montreal although I don't know what's she's trading. Other, than that, I also know a few ethnic women retail traders online but not in person. Mark
My buddy who started at a Swift office in Canada said there was an Indian woman who made good consistent money there.
Couple simple ideas. Women are more naturally emotionally-oriented than rationally-oriented. Women like to have fun. I see few women wanting to sit at a screen all day and study bollinger bands on a bunch of numbers. That kind of mental discipline this field takes. They may be a bit stereotypical, yes, but more often that not there is solid background behind them.