A New York Times
article titled “The Biology of Bubble and Crash” by John Coates introduces
human biology and how it changes when faced with stress and risk. In severe
cases of “outrageous success or terrifying failure” our body’s chemistry
changes. The body’s natural homeostasis is thrown out of whack when certain
hormones are produced at a higher level, which can “destabilize financial
markets and wreak havoc on the wider economy.” When a trader is deciding
whether or not to take a risk in order to make money a serge of steroids is
released into their blood stream which effects the way that they think and
move. Trader’s testosterone levels, men’s and women’s, clime in preparation for
the trade ahead. Adrenaline and cortisol are released by the adrenal glands,
which causes the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine “one of the most addictive drug known
to the human brain” alters the thinking of a trader and sometimes causes them
to make irrational decisions. The author of the article quit his job on Wall
Street in order to study the effects that these hormones have on traders and
the market. He runs controlled experiments with both male and female traders
and found that increase levels of testosterone leads to taking greater risks.
He than offers a fix to the problem by encouraging banks to balance their
employees between men and women, both young and old in order to balance risk.
As
we saw with the latest recession the financial world affects us all. Whether
you work on Wall Street or depend on retirement income from investments if
people make poor decisions when trading stocks because of increase hormone
levels it can have a devastating effect. Millions of people lost their jobs
when the financial markets collapsed and it’s hard to believe that some of it
could have been due to too much testosterone.
This
article is very interesting because it touches on a piece of trading that is
never discussed. The uncertainty tied to trading stocks and the stress it
causes can actually affect a person’s judgment and that’s pretty scary. I found
it fascinating how he quit his job to study that fact that people can be
influenced by chemical produced in their body. The article is well written,
although the experiments that the author ran seemed a bit small. In order to
make his findings more valid he should increase the number of test subjects and
add a control group to make shore that other factors are not affecting their
hormone levels.
Liam did a great job on his review on the article “The Biology of Bubble and Crash” by John Coates. I learned some very interesting things. For example, I never knew that our homeostasis could drastically change because I thought if it did very bad things would happen. I also thought it was interesting when he said that when traders are deciding whether or not to take a risk on an order steroids are released into the blood stream that affects he thinks and moves. Lastly, I was interested by how a trader’s testosterone levels, male or female, climb in preparation for the trade ahead. Although Liam’s review was great there are a few things that he could do to make it better. One, he could have added some opinions from scientists on how they think about this study. Also, he could have added some numbers like how much do their levels increase. Lastly, I did not know the increase in the level of testosterone leads to bigger risk taking.
ReplyDeleteMy classmate Liam Lynch did a great review on the article "The Biology of Bubble and Crash" by John Coates. In my opinion, Liam's review was so good because he connected the scientists study with the stock market and other businesses. This made the review much better because it showed how this new discovery can impacted or life. In second, I really likes how Liam gave a few brief explanations of the confusing words, phrases, and scientific terms, such as the explantation of how testosterone effects people. In addition, I liked how Liam added a quote from the article. This was good because it allowed the reader to get a feel for way the article was written.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Liam's review was really good, he could make a few changes for his next current event project. For example, Liam could have added some details or statistics straight from the article. Moreover, the review would have been better if Liam added some of the opinions from the scientists. For example, Liam could have included each scientists reaction to the discovery.
Lastly, I found this review to be extremely interesting, as it is making me want to read the article myself. One of the things that I found to be extremely interesting was the part on how an increase in the level of testosterone can lead to people making bigger risks. In addition, I like how Liam included the levels of testosterone has a direct impact on the stock market and the depression.
My Classmate Liam read and reviewed the article, “the Biology of Bubble and Crash” I found this very interesting I didn’t know that steroids were released into people’s brains in situations concerning money and trading. It makes sense that the testosterone would be is released into the brain during these high stress situations. I also found Liam presented the information very well, it was concise and interesting. Lastly I think he emphasized well that these studies don’t happen to frequently, connecting biology to an aspect of life like that is rare.
ReplyDeleteThe article, while great, had a few blemishes that could be fixed. First in one sentence Liam says, “out of whack” and I think it makes the article sound a little unprofessional. Also he mentions the experiment include men and women then goes to say that in it testosterone levels go up, but he does not say whether it’s in both or just one of them. Also a little in depth explanation could clear it up as well, the writer says you can balance gender and age to fix this problem, but I didn’t quite understand why this would help.
Overall it was a great review and I think it was very interesting to hear that Dopamine was released into the Brain as well.
My classmate Liam reviewed an article called, “The Biology of Bubble and Crash” which talked about hormones that are activated when one is experiencing stress. This hormone released is most common amongst people working with stocks and in the marketing business. I think the overall explanation of the article was well presented, especially by explanation of examples rather than listing them. His connection on how this affects people in our world today was good because as of 2008, many people have been losing jobs based off of stress. It is nice to know that he mentioned the financial collapse, which our country is still recovering from. Mentioning this article brought a new light to something that not many people know about. Many people are always under stress but when a simple chemical in the human body can alter their world, it brings a new topic to be discussed. I think that the name of this chemical in the body that is released should have been named if it was given. Also, I think the last two paragraphs were just restating each other, not really bringing anything new to the table. I was very impressed by this article and I think Liam did a nice job analyzing this article are realizing how something so simple can affect many people.
ReplyDelete