The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind

by John Coates

Tom Wolfe nailed this delusional behavior when he described the stars of Wall Street as “Masters of the Universe.” It was this behavior more than anything else that struck me during the dot-com era. For the undeniable fact was, people were changing. The change showed itself not only among the untrained public but also, perhaps even more, among professional traders all along Wall Street. Normally a sober and prudent lot, these traders were becoming by small steps euphoric and delusional. Their minds were frequently troubled by racing thoughts, and their personal habits were changing: they were making do with less sleep—clubbing till 4 a.m.—and seemed to be horny all the time, more than usual at any rate, judging by their lewd comments and the increased amount of porn on their computer screens. More troubling still, they were becoming overconfident in their risk taking, placing bets of ever increasing size and with ever worsening risk-reward trade-offs. I was later to learn that the behavior I was witnessing showed all the symptoms of a clinical condition known as mania (but now I am getting ahead of the story).