I’m no expert, but I think there are so few women in trading cause they’re less risky than men.
Female traders ... and why so few of us
I don’t believe that they are there because of the risks, they are just few because some of them are just ignorant and thus if they would be introduced in here to the Forex Trading in here, they are going to become more successful in Forex.
I think from a psychological perspective, trading appeals to the “hunter” within and males tend to have this instinct rather more strongly than females, who on an evolutionary basis tended to be “Nurturer gatherers”.
That isn’t to say there are no female hunters, poker players and traders, some good ones too. It just doesn’t appeal to as many females as males imho, because of the evolutionary nature of our psychology.
Nobody “should be in combat…” - However if there are goingto be people forced to go and shoot or be shot, then any society which values Equality - should ensure the balance of sexes being forced to do so, represents the balance of sexes within the population of course.
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There may be many reasons resulting the few female traders in Forex. Like ignorance, which is the major one, also much females aren’t that much compatible of using a computer and which again make very difficult for them to learn about the Forex and also many of them are housewife, which again results into less females trading with Forex.
OUCH !
I don’t think your analysis is correct.
[edit - Not in the western hemisphere at least ! - I don’t know where you are from, but I think you will be finding a new perspective soon, wherever it is ! 
]
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Very recent - Evolutionary processes seem also now to exclude men entirely from becoming teachers, something which whilst never “Gender neutral” did used to have a reasonable number of very good male teachers of passion and ability (amongst the “chaff”).
Yes I agree, “Nurture” is at least as important as “Nature” in the production of the person, But that also brings on questions of policy and “improvement” in policies towards the population as a whole, which must not be discussed here except possibly in PMs.
Good and thoughtful post
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Thanks Falstaff! It is a bit of a minefield!
I wouldn’t say that my perspective is wrong, but yeah, mine is a bit different from others, but it is not wrong. We all have our own mindsets and you should appreciate all of them, to believe and not is all up to you. You should share your mindsets.in here instead of making fun of other people’s thinking.
Interesting question, without getting involved in the rest of the discussion but rather focusing on the initial question I might have an answer or clue for you. Quite early on while I was learning and trialling on demo accounts and micro accounts I realised emotions are a big factor in trading. I quickly surmised that a higher EQ (emotional quotient) might be more important than a high IQ. Thus I realised trading should be more naturally suited to a feminine leaning personality. I thought my wife could benefit from learning what I am doing and I quickly and enthusiastically offered to teach her.
I was quite disappointed, she flat didn’t believe she was capable, and I know she is fully capable. Generally I realised a lack of self belief stopped her even trying, she had no interest. I won’t go into the details but generally she did not believe she could do it. I think the lack of self belief may also come from society, just looking at the very strong responses on this forum might be indicative of how society frames us and even makes us believe what society would have us believe.
So as to reasons why their are fewer women traders (and at the seminars I’ve been to, I’ve also seen a distinct lack of female traders, but they did ask all the good questions) the reasons may be to do with self belief, societal beliefs and pressures. Perhaps there is something that can be done to change this. Personally I would be well pleased to lounge on a yacht that my wife bought with her expertise than even having to bother about trading!
Slowly I will try to convince her again though, thanks for your question and good articles, it has convinced me what I know I should do to get a better living through trading!
Why ?
My wife doesn’t drive, doesn’t want to - I tried to convince her how easy it was once or twice, but that is her decision. Why should I insist she’s wrong in making it ?
I don’t want to drink soya milk and fake chicken made out of fungus and she doesn’t insist - why should I insist she drives a car ?
Sometimes what we think we do “for your own benefit” - can be perceived as “Controlling” behaviour"
There are several reasons. Firstly, if something should happen to me then she will have more chance of being financially independent. Second, I’m lazy, if she can make money and enjoys it, then I can go fishing or doing other hobbys that are more enjoyable / travel / cruise / retire early. Third, if she can make profit it may increase her feelings of self worth and pride. Fourth, she may be better at it than me.
As for controlling, she is free; if she where financially independent, she would certainly be more free from me, free from relying on my finances. Instead I will offer to turn that reasoning on its head. Perhaps the reason there is so much insistence that women should not trade is because of insecurities around being a male provider. Keeping someone from being able to provide for themselves, (or twice as much as I could) could be seen as a way of controlling them as they could not leave the relationship due to financial control one has over the other, or financial dependence versus Independence. For in this world, if a man is no longer a provider, what is his purpose?
These are just some of the reasons I could give to convince her to give it a try.
Yes she would wouldn’t she ?
Are you actually making consistent profits at the moment ?
It is in the black, however, if I had a more stable emotional response to the market I would have been better off, hence my idea that a female counterpart trades with me. I will also state I am new < 2 years actual trading. Often we have had discussions while trading and her decisions or recommended actions, based not on charts or Forex understanding or techniques, but solely on her emotional response and understanding, her decisions turned out very good and I would have made much better profits had I listened. Now I listen to her, and listening has been profitable!
I believe the emotional part of trading to be a high percent in making profits in trading, perhaps a Spock like personality is the type to make good money.
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I think the reverse case “emotions are a large contributor to making losses” - is certainly true and your discussions with a person who is Not involved are helpful for you. Whether that would be the case if the person was involved in the trade, I’m less sure.
Very often someone who is distant from the problem, can see it far more clearly than someone close to it. I’m not sure that holds more for women than it does for men.
Often women let their emotions out and often men internalise them, but that is a generalisation which may not be helpful. Emotions are evolutions way of controlling our behaviour - in fact that of all animals and birds.
In modern society emotions ar geared to problems of 30,000 years ago, which simply do not apply nowadays to most of us. So the emotions are usually wrong !
You know who makes a better trader than a woman or a man? A computer.
Now, would female computers outperform male computers?
Yes, I phrased that badly, perhaps a better way of saying it is:
I believe the emotional part of trading to have a very high impact on our profitability of the trading system, in that emotions can make us trade badly, or outside of the system parameters.
Love that clip ! How things have changed since I was a lad !
Can you imagine the furore if you put something like that on telly these days ? -
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It’s difficult to say why the number of women is so much less then the number of men. May be the reason is that women seem less keen to risk?
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Here’s an inspirational story. (Technically, she’s a market maker, not a trader, but still inspiring.)
Lauren Simmons is the only full time female trader on the floor of the New York stock exchange. At 23, she’s also its youngest. And she joins just one of two African-American women to sign the constitution of the exchange
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