假如由女性来掌管金融界

Fess up, fellows: The masters of the universe have turned out to be masters of disaster. No matter which aspect of the financial crisis you consider, there is a man behind it.
大伙儿说实话吧，男人自以为是宇宙的主宰，结果却成了灾难的源头。无论从哪个角度来看这次的金融危机，背后都有一个男人是罪魁祸首。

So, it is worth pointing out how different things might be if the financial world were female.
所以我们有必要指出，如果金融界由女人来掌管的话，情况应该会有所不同。

Finance professors Brad Barber and Terrance Odean have found that women's risk-adjusted returns beat those of men by an average of about one percentage point annually. In short, women trade less frequently, hold less volatile portfolios and expect lower returns than men do.
金融学教授布莱德·巴伯(Brad Barber)和特伦斯·奥丁(Terrance Odean)发现，女人的年投资回报率（经风险因素调整后）比男人平均高于约一个百分点。总结来看，女人的交易频率更低，持有组合的波动性更低，对回报率的心理预期也比男人低。

On the other hand, in the testosterone-poisoned sandbox of the male investor, the most important thing is beating the other guy; the second most important: bragging about it. The long term is somebody else's problem, and asking for advice is an admission of inferiority. Worrying about risk is for sissies. Leverage is good, since it raises returns -- while the market goes up. Is it any wonder the male-dominated world of Wall Street has boomed and busted every few years for more than two centuries?
从另一方面来看，在男性荷尔蒙旺盛的老爷们儿唱主角的投资界，最重要的事情是打败其他的男人，第二重要的事情是炫耀自己的胜利。至于长期回报率，则是别人的问题。向别人请教等于承认自己的无能，担心投资风险显得娘娘腔。杠杆很好，因为当市场上涨的时候它能提高回报率。因此，两个多世纪以来，男人唱主角的华尔街市场每隔几年就会经历一次繁荣和随后的泡沫破灭，一点也不足以为奇。

Women, by contrast, put safety first. Even after controlling for age, income and marital status, women are more inclined than men to wear seat belts, avoid cigarette smoking, floss and brush their teeth and get their blood pressure checked. They even have been shown to be 40% less prone than men to run yellow traffic lights.
与此相反的是，女人总是把安全放在第一位。即使经过年龄、收入水平和婚姻状况的筛选后，女性仍比男性更习惯于开车系安全带、避免吸烟、经常刷牙和定期检查血压，女人黄灯抢行的几率甚至都要比男人低40%。

Women are less afflicted than men by overconfidence, or the delusion that they know more than they really do. And they're more likely than men to attribute success to factors outside themselves, like luck or fate.
女性不像男人那样，容易被过度的自信所控制，也不容易陷于以为自己无所不能的幻觉之中，女性更可能把自己的成功归因于外界因素，比如运气或命运。

In 2001, a survey of financial analysts and investment advisers found that women felt it was much more important than men did to avoid incurring large losses, falling below a target rate of return and acting on incomplete information. In short, women are more risk-averse than men. And they shy away from uncertainty: Asked whether having ambiguous information would reduce their confidence and raise their perception of risk, 92% of the women said yes, versus just 69% of the men.
2001年，对金融分析师和投资顾问的一项调查发现，女人在避免重大投资损失、避免低于目标回报率和避免信息不全就贸然从事等方面要比男人强得多。简而言之，女性比男性更厌恶风险，对不确定性更为谨慎。当被问及含糊不清的信息是否会降低其投资信心并提升风险意识时，92%的女性给予肯定答复，而男性说是的只有69%。

'There's a general emotional difference between men and women as they perceive and take risks,' said Jennifer Lerner, a psychologist at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“男人和女人在看待和承担风险时，通常有一个感知上的差别。”哈佛大学政治学院(Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government)的心理学教授珍妮弗·勒纳(Jennifer Lerner)说道。

Negative events like natural disasters, terrorist attacks or a financial crisis usually make men more angry than fearful. Women, on the other hand, tend to feel more fearful than angry.
自然灾害、恐怖袭击和金融危机等负面事件通常会让男人更愤怒，而不是更恐惧；而女人更倾向于感觉到恐惧而非愤怒。

Those differing emotions lead to divergent viewpoints. Seen through what Prof. Lerner calls 'a lens of anger,' the world seems more certain, more amenable to our control and less risky. Viewed through a lens of fear, however, the world appears full of uncertainty, beyond our control and rife with risk.
这种感知差别导致了观点差异。通过勒纳教授所称的“愤怒之眼”，外界会显得更确定、更容易受掌控和风险更低；而通过“恐惧之眼”，外界会显得极不确定、无法掌控和充满风险。

The results of a nationwide survey of hundreds of investors conducted in March, just days after the Dow bottomed at 6547, show how anger and fear in the minds of men and women can affect their financial decisions. Men were far more likely than women to say they were 'more angry than fearful' about the financial crisis. And one in eight men, but only one in every 40 women, had 'made riskier investments looking for long-term growth' in the previous week. Female investors were twice as likely to expect the return on stocks over the coming year to be zero or negative and to think stocks will return 5% or less per year over the next 10 years.
一项对全美几百位投资者的调查于2009年3月结束，当时正值道琼斯指数跌至6547点的几天之后。从调查结果可以看出男性和女性感受到的愤怒和恐惧是如何影响其投资决策的。与女性相比，大多数男性说他们对此次金融危机的感觉“愤怒多于恐惧”，有八分之一的男性在调查前一周“基于长远考虑而扩大风险资产的投资”，而女性这么做的只有四十分之一。女性投资者预计未来一年股票回报率为零或负值以及未来10年的年平均回报率在5%以内的比例要比男性投资者高一倍。

'The women were more concerned but took fewer actions,' said psychologist Ellen Peters of the University of Oregon, who co-directed the survey. 'They were also more pessimistic -- or realistic? -- about what to expect from the market.'
“女人更容易担心，但采取的行动更少。”此项调查的负责人之一、俄勒冈大学(Oregon)心理学教授艾伦．彼得斯(Ellen Peters)说，“在预期市场回报方面，女性也持更悲观的态度，或者说是更现实。”

Stocks are up 35% since March, so the women's fears haven't yet come to pass. But their inaction already looks wise. And their realism can't hurt, either. 'The essential traits and qualities of the male,' H.L. Mencken once wrote, 'are at the same time the hall-marks of the numskull. ... Women, in fact, are the supreme realists of the race.'
从2009年3月以来，美国股市已上涨35%，而女性对投资的恐惧心理尚未过去。不过，她们的“不作为”看上去似乎是明智的，其现实主义倾向也更安全。“ 男人所拥有的基本特点和品质，”门肯(H.L. Mencken)曾这样写道，“正是愚蠢的最显眼商标……事实上，女性才是人类中最务实的人群。”

Memo to men: Your household's investment portfolio will be less risky and more diversified if your wife helps manage it. She will share in what comes out of that portfolio down the road; shouldn't she share in what goes into it? Chances are, her ideas and emotions will complement yours, and you will both end up wealthier. At least one of you will end up wiser.
我要给男人们提个醒：如果让妻子帮着管管，你家的投资组合风险会更低，品种会更多元化。既然她也是投资组合的未来受益者，为什么不能和你共同管理呢？很有可能，她的观点和感性认识会弥补你在投资方面的不足，你们俩最终能够变得更加富有，而且至少你们中的一个，会变得更有智慧。