John Coates Ph.D.

John Coates

University position

Research Fellow

Departments

Judge Business School and Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

Email

jmc98@cam.ac.uk

Home page

http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/researc... (personal home page)

Research Theme

Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience

The Cambridge Neuroscience Community

Interests

Endogenous steroid hormones and financial decision making.

The waves of irrational exuberance and pessimism that destabilise the financial markets may be driven by naturally produced steroid hormones. With receptors in almost every nucleated cell in the body, steroids such as testosterone and cortisol affect the moods we experience, the memories we store and recall, and the behaviour we display in competitive and risk-taking situations.

I have been sampling endogenous steroids from traders on a trading floor in the City to determine the role of both testosterone and cortisol in their decision making and in their performance. I complement this field work with behavioural experiments set in the lab and in artificial asset markets.

Trading Floor

Research Focus

Keywords

Testosterone

Reward

Cortisol

Uncertainty

Neuroeconomics

Clinical conditions

Addiction

Hormonal disorders

Stress

Equipment

Behavioural analysis

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Hormone assays

Neuropsychological testing

Collaborators

Cambridge

Mark Gurnell

Ben Hardy

United Kingdom

lionel page

International

Casimir Wierzynski Web: http://casimir.net

Linda Wilbrecht Web: http://keck.ucsf.edu/neurogr...

Key publications

Coates JM, Herbert J (2008), “Endogenous steroids and financial risk taking on a London trading floor.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(16):6167-72 Details

Publications

2010

Coates JM, Gurnell M, Sarnyai Z (2010), “From molecule to market: steroid hormones and financial risk-taking.” Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 365(1538):331-43 Details

2009

Coates JM, Gurnell M, Rustichini A (2009), “Second-to-fourth digit ratio predicts success among high-frequency financial traders.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Details

Coates JM, Page L (2009), “A note on trader Sharpe Ratios.” PLoS One 4(11):e8036 Details