Longer ring finger predicts financial success ~~~>> what about u ?

The length of a man’s ring finger may predict his success as a financial trader. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England report that men with longer ring fingers, compared to their index fingers, tended to be more successful in the frantic high-frequency trading in the London financial district.

Indeed, the impact of biology on success was about equal to years of experience at the job, the team led by physiologist John Coates reports in Monday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The same ring-to-index finger ratio has previously been associated with success in competitive sports such as soccer and basketball, the researchers noted.

The length ratio between those two fingers is determined during the development of the fetus and the relatively longer ring finger indicates greater exposure to the male hormone androgen, the researchers noted.

Previous studies have found that such exposure can lead to increased confidence, risk preferences, search persistence, heightened vigilance and quickened reaction times.

In the new study, the researchers measured the right hands of 44 male stock traders who were engaged in a type of trade that involved rapid decision-making and quick physical reactions.

Over 20 months those with longer ring fingers compared to their index fingers made 11 times more money than those with the shortest ring fingers. Over the same time the most experienced traders made about 9 times more than the least experienced ones.

Looking only at experienced traders, the long-ring-finger folks earned 5 times more than those with short ring fingers.

While the finger ratio, showing fetal exposure to male hormones, appears to signal likely success in high-actively trading that calls for risk-taking and quick reactions, it may not indicate people who would do well at other sorts of financial activities, the researchers said. Some traders require additional skills on dealing with clients and sales workers.

Google to close engineering offices

Recession seems to have started hurting search giant Google. In a statement on its official blog, Google Senior Vice President, Engin

eering and Research, Alan Eustace said the company was eliminating some engineering jobs at various locations across the world.

Eustace said that Google had been hiring "outstanding engineers in a wide mix of countries. Having offices distributed around the globe is critical to Google's long-term success, and today we have thousands of engineers working in 40 offices in more than 20 countries."

"It has enabled us to make significant improvements in our products and attract more users globally. It has also presented unique challenges. The most difficult of these being to coordinate our efforts across all geographies, and provide engineers with significant, meaningful projects that make a real difference to people's lives."

Eustace further said that the company in last September asked engineers in Phoenix, Arizona to move to other offices and now it is "doing the same thing in Austin, Texas; Trondheim, Norway; and Lulea, Sweden.

"Our strong desire is to keep as many of these 70 engineering employees at Google as possible. However, we do recognise the upheaval and heartache that these changes may have on Google families, and that we may not be able to keep 100 per cent of these exceptional employees."

"Our long-term goal is not to trim the number of people we have working on engineering projects or reduce our global presence, but create a smaller number of more effective engineering sites, which will ensure that innovation and speed remain at our core," the official added.

Also, sensing that it does not need many people for its "reduced rate of hiring," Internet search giant Google is laying off about 100 employees from its recruitment team and has also terminated its contracts with the external hiring agencies, a company official said.

In a statement posted on the company's official blog, Google Vice-President, People Operations, Laszlo Bock said that "Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate.

"Given the state of the economy, we recognised that we needed fewer people focused on hiring," Bock said, following which it decided to "wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google."

IBM to create 1,300 jobs

IBM, the world's largest technology services company, plans to open a new computer support center in Iowa, creating up to 1,300 new jobs

and defying a trend of widespread corporate layoffs.

The Dubuque facility in a 10-story office building once occupied by now-defunct retailer Roshek's Department Store, will create jobs for high-tech workers at a time when many technology companies are cutting staff.

Workers will provide security services and remote support to IBM customers, helping to maintain computers and software systems primarily located in the United States, IBM said.

International Business Machines Corp said it plans to employ several hundred people in the facility by the end of this year, following renovations to the top eight floors of the building that it will occupy to make it more energy efficient.

By the end of next year, as many as 1,300 IBM employees will work in the building built in the 1930s, IBM said.

On Tuesday, IBM announced plans to work with Michigan State University to build a software development center in East Lansing, Michigan, that will create up to 1,500 jobs over the next five years.