A Combination of Dopamine Genes Predicts Success by Professional Wall Street Traders

Abstract

What determines success on Wall Street? This study examined if genes affecting dopamine levels of professional traders were associated with their career tenure. Sixty professional Wall Street traders were genotyped and compared to a control group who did not trade stocks. We found that distinct alleles of the dopamine receptor 4 promoter (DRD4P) and catecholamine-O-methyltransferase (COMT) that affect synaptic dopamine were predominant in traders. These alleles are associated with moderate, rather than very high or very low, levels of synaptic dopamine. The activity of these alleles correlated positively with years spent trading stocks on Wall Street. Differences in personality and trading behavior were also correlated with allelic variants. This evidence suggests there may be a genetic basis for the traits that make one a successful trader.

COMT val158met predicts reward responsiveness in humans

“…Thus, we argue the met/met group displayed 'functional impulsivity' (Dickman 1990), in the extent to which they adjusted task performance to optimize their rewards. The association between reward responsiveness and advantageous reward-seeking in the met/met group suggests that the magnitude of reward representation may modulate the degree to which people learn to maximize environmental rewards (Sapra et al 2012). Indeed, research suggests that met/met individuals adapt to task contingencies more flexibly (Frank et al 2007), a finding that resonates with the present study's results.…”

“…The association between reward responsiveness and advantageous reward‐seeking in the met/met group suggests that the magnitude of reward representation may modulate the degree to which people learn to maximize environmental rewards (Sapra et al . ). Indeed, research suggests that met/met individuals adapt to task contingencies more flexibly (Frank et al .…”

Plastic and immobile: Unequal intergenerational mobility by genetic sensitivity score within sibling pairs

“…Genetic Sensitivity, Environment, and Financial Outcomes Evidence suggests that variation at the genetic locations examined in this study may be directly associated with financial outcomes (Sapra et al 2012;Carpenter et al 2011;Eisenegger et al 2010). For example, recent experimental evidence (Kuhnen and Chiao 2009;Dreber et al 2009) suggests that the long 5-HTT allele and the 7-repeat DRD4 allele are positively associated with risk taking in financial investment decisions.…”

La personnalité narcissique devient-elle plus fréquente ? Fait culturel ou fait clinique ?

“…De façon analogue, l'existence de scores plus é levé s chez les hommes que chez les femmes soulè ve la question des facteurs biologiques à l'origine de certains traits de personnalité . La testosté rone et la dopamine se retrouvent à des taux plus é levé s, comme cela a pu être montré dans une é tude ré alisé e à la Bourse de New York parmi des agents de change, et collaborateurs [12]. Une é tude ré alisé e chez des futurs cré ateurs d'entreprise et des entrepreneurs montre des scores é levé s au NPI 16 [9].…”