Dr John Coates, former research fellow in Neuroscience and Finance at the University of Cambridge, also traded derivatives for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

He developed novel techniques for analysing and trading tail events such as financial crises. He then retrained in physiology and neuroscience and began researching the biology of risk taking and stress. Monitoring in real time the cardiovascular and endocrine systems of traders, he found that the state of their physiology (not their psychology) is the single largest predictor of their P&L and Var.

His book, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf – How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind, was short listed for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year, and the UK Wellcome Trust Science Prize. It was also chosen book of the month by the British Army. The journal, Foreign Policy, named him one of the most influential thinkers of the year.