5 Myths About Women Traders

There are many misconceptions about female traders in the world of finance, leading to a great many myths.

In today’s article we are going to look at five of the most common myths often propagated at women traders.

1. They Rely on Luck and Intuition

Women’s confidence tends to be one of the main reasons reported for their superior performance in securities trading.

Compared to the skittish and often hasty investment habits of men, women tend to rely more heavily on the cold hard facts, seeking out more information and taking their time before making a decision.

2. They Aren’t Successful

As mentioned above, women tend to be more likely than men to spend a lot of time researching and studying prior to making a trade.

Analysing the markets and subsequently making informed decisions has led women to perform better than men on a consistent basis.

In fact, all-female investment clubs outperformed their all-male counterparts by as much as 5% in the last year.

3. They Have No Interest in Securities and Finance

One of the biggest myths about women in finance is that they don’t have any interest in securities trading in the first place.

Over the years the wealth of knowledge of the markets has been largely limited to universities with a largely male alumni.

With the advent of the Internet, however, a far greater proportion of the population has gained access to extensive market insights, including women of course.

In addition to all of this it is worth noting that the female trading population has been growing by around 2% year on year, so it can hardly be said that women aren’t interested in investing!

4. They Handle Crises Poorly

The root of this myth is easy to trace, with many believing that women are overly emotional and generally less level-headed and rational than men.

A study from the German Comdirect Bank and the DAB took a sample of around 500,000 portfolios and found that throughout 2007 and 2008 women performed 4 – 6% better than men on average.

5. Female Traders Only Work for Large Institutions

There are countless women in the world of finance who trade on a full time basis; this is particularly true of female Forex traders.

Many of these female traders have honed their craft while relying almost exclusively on online resources, creating impressive portfolios from home without working for large financial institutions.

This should be reassuring to many women who may feel that they need to belong to a big company or be part of some privileged educational organization.

So as we can see, many of the myths surrounding female traders are largely unfounded, and some have even been directly contradicted by data from research.

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