Video Game Skills Good For Trading Jobs

from the gotta-have-those-computer-smarts dept

It was just a couple months ago that a study said video games were good for children in that they helped promote problem solving skills (though, some of the results raised questions about the study itself). Now, some are claiming that good video gaming skills can be useful to jobs that involve trading in financial markets. The claim is that people who are used to monitoring things happening quickly on a screen and responding with their hands will be able to handle trading much better. They also seem to think that experience playing online poker helps traders learn not to get too emotional about trades (of course, it might help to find out if the players are any good at online poker first). None of the quotes in the article are backed up by any real studies. It's just people saying it as if it must be true. It might be more interesting to see if there's any real difference in traders who have gaming experience and those that don't.
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  1. identicon
    Steve Mueller, 10 Oct 2004 @ 11:49pm

    It Wouldn't Surprise Me

    If monitoring multiple things on-screen makes for good traders, I'd think it would also make for good air traffic controllers.

    In fact, I seem to recall hearing that people using flight simulator programs made better combat pilots. Whether that's true or not, I don't know.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Arun Jacob, 11 Oct 2004 @ 7:24pm

    No Subject Given

    Playing video games might make you quicker at responding to trade information that pops on a screen, but it won't make you trade better.
    For that, you need that thingy called IQ.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Steve Mueller, 11 Oct 2004 @ 9:58pm

    Re: IQ

    If working the trading floor is just being the first to respond when a price falls within a specified range, quick reaction time may well be all that's needed.

    I suspect you're thinking of financial analysis, not just trading. However, even in that case, IQ will only take you so far. Research and education are just as necessary. The highest IQ won't help a bit if the person doesn't understand financial markets.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Jan 2008 @ 11:43am

    i disagree with you but some of the part your sort of right.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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