'Fewer jocks, safer stocks'

Want to calm financial markets? Add more women and older people to the young men on trading desks. That is one recommendation resulting from research into the role of hormones in provoking risky behaviour in financial decisions. Cortisol and testosterone, more prevalent in young men, lead traders to take risks and keep taking them once they have had success, leading to winning streaks and crashes, said Ed Roberts, a researcher at Imperial College London.