The Hour Between Dog and Wolf summary

Testosterone is considered one of the body’s most powerful hormones because it has a major influence on our behavior.

If you’re facing a challenge such as an athletics tournament the body releases testosterone, enabling you to compete for prolonged periods. It accelerates our metabolism and the rate of cell growth, increases our physical strength, lifts our mood and heightens our cognitive performance.

Have you ever wondered how you’re able to catch a fast-moving ball so quickly and accurately, even when there’s little time to make a conscious effort? That’s because our brain anticipates such movements, since our physiology is too slow for us to see things in real time.

Due to the structure of the human eye, we experience the external world with a delay of one-tenth of a second. This 100-millisecond delay between the throwing of a ball and our registering that movement means that the brain is forced to anticipate the position of the ball in mid-air.

Often, even if we cannot explain how we know something, we still somehow feel that it’s true. This is perhaps the reason that people tend to think of their intuition as a kind of supernatural gift.

The fact is, however, that intuition is actually an effect of our body recognizing patterns in the environment.

Even though we might think of stock market trading as an “office job,” the trading floor is often brimming with young, fit males – and often former athletes. Why? To be successful, stock market traders need to possess qualities such as high stamina, excellent concentration skills and a quickness in making trades.

For example, traders often must engage in visuo-motor scanning as they survey the screens for – sometimes minute – price anomalies. It’s very taxing on our brain to engage in this kind of activity for a prolonged period, yet traders have to do it for hours at a time.

While traders are in the middle of a “bull market” – a market in which stock prices are rising – they can begin to feel that they can do no wrong. At first glance, this might seem to be a great situation for a trader to find himself in, but the truth is it can lead to both addiction and greater risk-taking.

Just like gambling, risky trading can be addictive because it has the potential to increase our dopamine levels – a hormone associated with feelings of desire.

Whenever a big stock market crash occurs, the whole world is affected. And the stress that traders go through as a result of that crash makes it harder for them to regain control of the market.

During a crash, traders’ bodies undergo a strong reaction. Among other stress responses, the hormone cortisol is released, significantly affecting the brain’s functioning. Over a short period, cortisol can energize us to escape a threatening situation, but if it’s distributed for a prolonged time, it becomes harmful.

As we’ve seen, the human body’s stress response can lead people to make bad decisions. But, knowing this, is there something we can do to help minimize the impact of our physiology on our decisions?

Even though our resilience is genetic, repeatedly putting ourselves under moderate stress can help to toughen us up.

You might think it’s merely a cliche of Hollywood movies, but the fact is that trading floors are populated mostly by young men.

Since testosterone levels are at their highest in young men, their behavior is also the most volatile in response to the hormone’s effects.

Think back to the last time you were going through a particularly stressful period. How would you have responded to the opportunity to take an exotic vacation? Most likely, you’d have thought that this was perfect timing: a change of scenery would do you good.

However, you’d be wrong. When we’re stressed, novelty – even the pleasant kind – actually adds to our physiological stress load, and can even make us ill.