I’ve heard before that women’s stock portfolios often do better than men. Well, a recent study at MIT (.pdf) may help to explain why, according to this article at The Motley Fool:

Professor Frederick performed a study aimed at linking cognitive ability (IQ) with patience and risk tolerance. He found some interesting results when breaking down the data by gender. Here’s the sentence that grabbed me:

“Expressed loosely, being smart makes women patient and makes men take more risks.”

In the paper, patience referred to delaying small gains today for big gains tomorrow, and taking the time to work through problems rather than taking shortcuts via intuition. Risk referred to the willingness to take chances rather than settle for sure things.

I am sure the jury is still out, but it strikes me funny because I think many consider stock trading a “man” thing.

Violent day-trading and ballsy bragging about what stocks made what amounts during a 15 day turn over and what not plays into this i’m sure, and while “manly” things probably make the news (would you consider Jim Cramer “manly” or “womanly”?). Still, as any truly smart investor knows, slow and steady wins the race.