Book Review: The Hour between Dog and Wolf: Risk Taking, Gut Feelings, and the Biology of Boom and Bust

The Hour between Dog and Wolf: Risk Taking, Gut Feelings, and the Biology of Boom and Bust

John Coates, senior research fellow in neuroscience and finance at the University of Cambridge, offers a number of fascinating lessons from a booming new field, the biology of risk, revealing how risk taking and stress transform our body chemistry and drive us to irrational exuberance or pessimism. When such chemical surges overwhelm traders and investors, they tend to suffer either euphoric overconfidence or extreme timidity. Read more

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Asia and the Future of Finance: Restoring Trust Is an Urgent Task

Paul Smith, CFA

Asia holds an eminent position in the post-crisis global financial order. The region is also poised to lead global economic growth this century: The Asian Development Bank forecasts that Asian economies will account for half of global GDP and about half of the world’s financial assets, banks and equity and bonds markets by 2050. About 3 billion people in the region will start earning middle-class incomes over that period. The region has a large stake in restoring trust in the global financial system and in shaping its future. Read more

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13F Watch: Funds Add Health Care and Trim Technology as Activists Take Center Stage

Microsoft

In the first quarter of 2013, institutional investors added to their equity holdings in the healthcare sector while reducing their exposure to the technology stocks. Among the most widely held stocks, portfolio managers as a group added to positions in Citigroup (C), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Microsoft (MSFT), and BlackRock (BLK), and trimmed positions in Apple (AAPL), Oracle (ORCL), Pfizer (PFE), and Coca-Cola (KO). Read more

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