The financial crisis was not the fault of traders rather it was a problem that occurred when banks tied together mortgages and other risky assets and sold them to other banks who then stripped these products and took the profitable investments and left the sellers holding the bad assets on their balance sheet this coupled with interbank lending to each other increased the debt to equity ratio on their books with shareholders equity in these banks already thin it was a matter of time before one of them got scared.
A certain bank panicked and offloaded all its bad money on another who was left holding the can. This meant by default the interbank market shut down liquidity to prevent a spread in the system. It is this liquidity crunch that hit consumers. Were these
Institutions capitalised properly this wouldn’t have happened. Regulatory bodies in their wisdom allowed banks to hold debt which can be leveraged to make profit so bank’s had an incentive to hold more debt which was in turn made into profit for investors and shareholders. A game even we play in the FX market by leveraging debt to make profit.
This exposure affected bank’s in the the US and ones with exposure to the US market in Europe. The sovereign debt crisis was one of Southern European nations with weak balances sheet defaulting on their debts and being bailed out this led to fiscal tightening sucking demand out of the economy in real terms this meant job losses and welfare cuts. This spread to Asia because China and Japan held most of our debt and with reduced consumption both these export nations began to panic, this led to a fall in demand for commodities as manufacturing slowed. A truly global crisis.
So I can’t understand how more women traders would help this scenario.
Thank you, emeraldorc; I enjoyed tremendously your analysis, which was not only very informative but very well written… Please never leave these forums! My example was a little simplistic, and I accept that we may be at risk of gender stereotyping by describing one gender as being better at some things than the other: however, there is undoubtedly a specifically noxious and, at times, self-destructive trait among male traders, which, multiplied manifold, can lead to entire corporations or institutions losing sight of limits, engaging in extreme risk-taking and wreckless investing. Whether this is a ‘cleaner’ way to use up testosterone than, say, marching as an army to bring war on another nation, is not the point: our gender has many ways of engaging in machismo, sometimes at any cost. . .
Very interesting thread you’ve started, PipMeHappy.
I think more good female Traders would definitely work - it’s just balancing for one thing, like yin and yang. I’ve read previously that females can often make better traders than men due to their often more cautious nature around money. I think they are more likely to stick to their own rules and journalise what they do and ask for help when things aren’t working out. Of course this is just being general as I know both women and men who possibly wouldn’t make suitable Traders. I think it’s all about balance so let’s hope women will be encouraged to get some trading education, find a broker and start making $ in the FX world.
I personally know some female traders, who demonstrates telling results in trading, especially in PAMM. And Indeed their trading performance features confident and deliberate stride, without agressive and precipitate actions.
Right, i think without our unbeknownst, there are female trader in forex. Forex trading is flexible business so both female or male can trade in forex.
I think fxcm is too strictly business oriented.
They should add social stuff to the platform. Like meet a girl-trader in your area, … kind of advanced search.
I mean for some super geeks would be good to leave the room, once in a week or so.
[QUOTE=“mihk;618448”]I think fxcm is too strictly business oriented. They should add social stuff to the platform. Like meet a girl-trader in your area, … kind of advanced search. I mean for some super geeks would be good to leave the room, once in a week or so.[/QUOTE]
Haha. You made my night my dude! Meet a girl trader in your area? Solid!!! Lol I’m sure several would gladly pay for the service. Now if you could add a pay with your fx account, FXCM would be the number 1 broker in the world lol
I have a theory the reason there are not many female traders…
Forex is not really advertised, still kinda new for the retail like us
Women may think it’s just glorified gambling
Women do not handle as much rejection as men do (think dating). Example, most often guys seek the women, ask for the number, ask to go out etc. This is where constant rejection comes in
Trading takes an emotional toll on all traders alike (females are already wired to be more emotional than guys)… And many females may not want to have to deal with any more emotional tolls.
Trading can be very logical and systematic (guys are more prone to use logic and think logically)
Getting paid is not guaranteed (therefore not steady and dependable to most female or male alike)
I could go on but this is a good start. I’m not downing women, nor am I trying to deter them from trading, just listing possible reasons women are not attracted to trading therefore there statistically are less of them.
Thank you for the comments, everyone… Unfortunately I do not have hard facts to add to the thread, and I already made my point clear further up it. The greatest problem is that there are not enough female role models in this sector to attract young women to it: there seems to be an enormous supply of male traders on online resources (eg trading videos), who then attract male traders, who then become trainers in turn…and a cycle is thus formed. As one who once worked in an all female environment, I know how it can feel (in reverse), to be the odd one out, to be in the minority: however, I hope that companies will do more in this sense, so that aspiring traders can look up and see that the top levels are not solely occupied by men. Until women like Mary Barra, Christine Lagarde, Sheryl Sandberg, and Janet Yellen become a familiar sight, and until men are encouraged to spend more time at home, for example, with their children (a huge topic in itself), then we cannot truly say that the financial world is ‘open to women’. Cheers.
Jason Rogers, if you are listening in, would you be able to find out what the female-to-male ratio of FXCM’s retail traders was in the last, say, financial year? Thank you.
Women by nature are conservative and tend to have better emotional control. Men are more spontaneous and Hunter oriented, an evolutionary flaw in today’s world. In fact there are many sociological schools of thought that say our entire society is modelled to suit the female mind set. E.g. sales is now subtle and no longer in your face like the masculine post war years of Xerox salesmen. The same can be seen in domestic life and govt. policy. In this case I won’t speak US since they can’t even vote a female president although I am being unfair to Obama who was clearly suited (debatable I know).
In light of that women have outperformed men in all works life and this is set to continue as the world globalizes and gets over the gulf that exists between ethnicities and races. Banking culture will have to change for women to take that arena but the bad news is that the industry will continue attract undesirables both male and female as the environment is still one of cahuna wagging. Off putting for any descent female and no bank wants to be conservative despite what they will have us believe.
Yeah, voting in a president who has done his best to destroy this country was America’s best suited option. Lol, I just couldn’t contain myself. You know to be honest, I don’t like either party period and will voting independent 2014. A women world? I have see that theory all around the web. It’s very well suited for the alpha male if that’s the case, all the beta’s fall for the bs everyone tells them growing up. What I don’t understand is why females say things such as: “I want someone who is always there, dependable, caring, sweet, and loyal.” Ha, that’s why they date Aholes! Very logical women. Gotta love it. You know if women treated the market the same way they treated the beta males, example: use them, toy with there emotions, keep them on a leash… I think women would kill the market all together and be extremely profitable!
[QUOTE=“emeraldorc;618539”]Women by nature are conservative and tend to have better emotional control. Men are more spontaneous and Hunter oriented, an evolutionary flaw in today’s world. In fact there are many sociological schools of thought that say our entire society is modelled to suit the female mind set. E.g. sales is now subtle and no longer in your face like the masculine post war years of Xerox salesmen. The same can be seen in domestic life and govt. policy. In this case I won’t speak US since they can’t even vote a female president although I am being unfair to Obama who was clearly suited (debatable I know). In light of that women have outperformed men in all works life and this is set to continue as the world globalizes and gets over the gulf that exists between ethnicities and races. Banking culture will have to change for women to take that arena but the bad news is that the industry will continue attract undesirables both male and female as the environment is still one of cahuna wagging. Off putting for any descent female and no bank wants to be conservative despite what they will have us believe.[/QUOTE]
I hate to admit this but you sound very beta. Do you know what women are actually attracted too (at least the attractive well sought after ones)? The exact characteristics you call flaws. Spontaneous, hunter oriented men. And I Don’t mean they have to be hunters, I mean they are hunters in finding exactly what they want, do not settle for less, and are not predictable (not extremely, use some rationality here). So this is a flaw in today’s society? Coooommon man! If you eliminate these characteristics from males what difference are males to females?
I am married (I refrain from using words such as happily) and have been for over a decade. The age of feminism has made women into hunters as well as careful hunters. We only have to look at the UK’s most successful businesses (by this I mean Dollar successful, not size) they are all owned by women for those of us who peer into Dragons Den and Bloomberg’s female CEO’s you get the picture. These women not only show incredible drive but also a sense prowess, in many species including Lions, the females hunt and the males defend the pride usually in groups. Humans are the exception with men being hunter gatherers and women being the ones who trade (you know what) for security. This is definitely an evolutionary throw back and surely has no real meaning in today’s environment. In fact there is a well known author Christopher Ryan who makes this point very well and it is this human only exception that led to monogamy and women being labeled as the weaker sex, having being married for so long and dated all kinds of females I strongly disagree with this description of women.
To answer the question, there are no differences in ability between male and female, there are differences in social traits and physicality (debatable if you have ever fought Gina Carano ) but besides that there are no differences, this is what makes the world so scary for the chauvinistic male. If we used more smarts and less pack (herd) mentality then we would be the dominant gender. Women have no need for pack mentality as evolution has not afforded women this opportunity (who doesn’t hate the girlfriend’s best pal and love the boyfriend’s best mate). Men of course are the original pack animals, the simple reason why Mark Z the loneliest guy on the block ends up with the biggest social network in history and 500m+.
So yes strip that (risky go getter attitude) away we won’t have any differences and we will better for it.
Very nice rally. The evidence you use to support your argument is valid, no argument there. But I still speak the sad truth of most Americanized women. I’m sure we have all gotten burned and used before. However I will not fall victim to a pretty smile accompanied with a nice body and hidden intentions if possible. Beauty can quite often be evil xD.
Hi PipMeHappy, while I don’t have that stat for you, needless to say, a much larger percentage of traders are male. If I had to guess, I would say the female-to-male ratio on this forum is probably an accurate reflection of the overall distribution.
[QUOTE=“Jason Rogers;619360”] Hi PipMeHappy, while I don’t have that stat for you, needless to say, a much larger percentage of traders are male. If I had to guess, I would say the female-to-male ratio on this forum is probably an accurate reflection of the overall distribution.[/QUOTE]