Exploring the Nature of 'Trader Intuition'

Abstract

Experimental evidence has consistently confirmed the ability of uninformed traders, even novices, to infer information from the trading process. We hypothesized that ToM was involved after contrasting brain activation in subjects watching markets with and without insiders. ToM refers to the innate human capacity to discern malicious or benevolent intent. We find that skill in predicting price changes in markets with insiders correlates with scores on two ToM tests. We document GARCH-like persistence in transaction price changes that may help with reading markets when there are insiders.