The Hour Between Dog and Wolf

Risk Taking, Gut Feelings, and the Biology of Boom and Bust

By: John Coates

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A successful Wall Street trader turned Cambridge neuroscientist reveals the biology of boom and bust and how risk taking transforms our body chemistry, driving us to extremes of euphoria and risky behavior or stress and depression.

The laws of financial boom and bust, it turns out, have more than a little to do with male hormones. In a series of groundbreaking experiments, Dr. John Coates identified a feedback loop between testosterone and success that dramatically lowers the fear of risk in men - especially younger men. Significantly, the fear of risk is not reduced in women. Similarly, intense failure leads to a rise in levels of cortisol, the antitestosterone hormone, which lowers the appetite for risk across an entire spectrum of decisions.

Coates had set out to prove a strong intuition from his previous career: Before he became a world-class neuroscientist, Coates ran a derivatives desk in New York. As a successful trader on Wall Street, “the hour between dog and wolf” was the moment traders transformed - they would become revved up, exuberant risk takers when flying high or tentative, risk-averse creatures when cowering from their losses. Coates understood instinctively that these dispositions were driven by body chemistry - and then he proved it.

The Hour between Dog and Wolf expands on Coates’ own research to offer lessons from the entire exploding new field of the biology of risk. Risk concentrates the mind and body like nothing else, altering our physiology in ways that have profound and lasting effects. What’s more, biology shifts investors’ risk preferences across the business cycle and can precipitate great change in the marketplace.

Though Coates’ research concentrates on traders, his conclusions shed light on all types of high-pressure decision making, from the sports field to the battlefield. This book leaves us with a powerful insight: Handling risk in a “highly evolved” way isn’t a matter of mind over body; it’s a matter of mind and body working together. We all have it in us to be transformed from dog into wolf; the only question is whether we can understand the causes and the consequences.

©2012 John Coates (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A vivid and brilliantly written narrative: by integrating his knowledge of neuroscience with his experience as a Wall Street trader, Coates pulls back the curtain on the physiological mechanisms that prepare some individuals to thrive and others to be devastated by confronting risk.” (Stephen W. Porges, director, BrainBody Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago)

“This scintillating treatise...is a provocative and entertaining take on the irrational exuberance - and anxiety - of the modern economy.” (Publishers Weekly)

“John Coates brings finely honed scientific insight to his insider’s look at the world of highwire high finance to produce a vivid depiction of the minds, brains, and bodies of economic movers and shakers living on the edge.” (Gabor Maté, MD, author of When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress)

not just wall street

great analysis but, this behavior should also be explored I. policy makers and economist who also operate with gut instincts that are very usually wrong.

Really good neuroscience book

Excellent read on neuroscience and it's relationship to investment trading. Not a finance book (which is a good thing LOL).

excellent ideas

Book started out strong, explained with detail both trading events and accompanying chemical changes in the body. middle part of the book became a bit repetitive.
last chapter is controversial but I see the point the author has arrived at.
excellent ideas. I would recommend not only to investors and traders, but everybody that wants to be aware of how their body affects their decisions.

It is a well explained book. I want to read it again.

I loved the analogy between the human body and the traders’ mind. It is all about our physiology and body.

Amazing!

Hands down the best book I have ever read / listened to. Will continue to listen to it over and over again!!

Not actually about dogs or wolves

I made it to chapter two before realizing that his points about the stock market were neither metaphor nor side note, and that the book did not feature any canine evolution. I was surprised to find that I really liked it all the same - an informative and thought-provoking book I never meant to read but thoroughly enjoyed. The author’s occasional stray into poetry would be regrettable if he weren’t so good at it, and so the flow of the book is both pleasant and enlightening.

Seriously, I loved it. I didn’t mean to read it, but I’m glad I did.

Thinking that Occurs Faster & Outside the Brain

Fascinating book whose principles are exemplified in well written stories. There are other “brains” in the body that work with and apart from the brain. Narration was pitch perfect.

Eye-opening

The biology of decision making. John also illustrates the potential for science on the topic of decision making. Great listen

An interesting insight into stocks

I picked this up thinking it would be a little more of a self-help manual. While it begins by focusing on the typical stock broker (especially in the first third), by the middle of the book more biological and philosophical concepts are presented, making it more applicable to the general populace.

An enjoyable listen, but not one I’d instantly start again.

Well above average popular science book

Most in this genre kind of have one point with highly repetitive examples. This didn’t. It explored lots of angles of its inquiries with great anecdotes to help understanding. I also appreciated that it didn’t end like some other similar books with sort of shallow public policy suggestions.