Can YOU make it in high finance?

Apparently so, if you have a long ring finger.

We are going from bad to worse in financial areas it seems to me. It doesn't seem to be bad enough to have lost hundreds of billions of dollars of people's money we are now seeking explanations about how to do this well in high-risk financial transactions situations of the future by undertaking research on the length of someone's ring finger. Check this out:

By ABC News Online's Katie Franklin
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Posted Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:48pm AEDT
Updated Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:23pm AEDT
The traders participating in the study specialised in high-frequency trading, which involves fast-paced buying and selling.

The traders participating in the study specialised in high-frequency trading, which involves fast-paced buying and selling. (AFP: Timothy A Clary)

The length of a trader's finger may determine how successful they are on the stock market, new research suggests.

A study conducted by British researchers has found a strong correlation between a person's pre-natal exposure to testosterone and improved financial performance in men on the trading room floor.

The trait of having a relatively long ring finger indicates greater exposure to testosterone in the womb, the researchers noted, and this points to improved performance in high-stress financial areas.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

The study's lead author, Dr John Coates from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, says he began thinking about the role testosterone plays in the behaviour of traders while working on Wall Street.

Is this guy really serious? If so, then we have some real kooks running business schools in England and probably elsewhere in the world.

I can see it now, in the future we will be able to make it on to the trading floor simply by holding up our lengthy ring finger and convincing our colleagues that by our exposure to testosterone at an early age we have the skills and the know-how that suits us for future multimillion dollar trades on the floor of a stock market somewhere.

Isn't it bad enough that we have lost hundreds of billions of dollars on the stock market thanks to something that traders and others may have done wrong and now, right now, just as we are seeking to remedy some of the failures of the past Doctor Coates and his research suggests that testosterone in the womb and the production of long ring fingers for male traders may be the answer to the production of skilled traders who can stand the stresses and strains of the stock market floor.

Just when I thought I had heard it all. If this is the way of the future then I see a rocky road ahead.