--- product_id: 18336948 title: "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind" price: "€ 41.41" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/18336948-the-hour-between-dog-and-wolf-how-risk-taking-transforms store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # Top #50 in Neuropsychology & Business 720+ reviews, 4.4⭐ avg rating Deep dive into neuroscience of risk The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind **Price:** € 41.41 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🕰️ Master the moment where risk meets reward — before everyone else does! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind - **How much does it cost?** € 41.41 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/18336948-the-hour-between-dog-and-wolf-how-risk-taking-transforms) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Gender & Risk Decoded:** Reveals why men and women respond differently to risk and how to leverage this insight. - • **Science Meets Strategy:** Combines neuroscience, endocrinology, and economics for a fresh perspective on decision-making. - • **Insider Wall Street Wisdom:** Written by a former trader who lived the highs and crashes of the Nasdaq bubble. - • **Unlock the Biology of Risk:** Explore how your body transforms under pressure, from Wall Street to everyday decisions. - • **Train Your Mental Toughness:** Learn practical advice to condition your body and mind for high-stress success. ## Overview The Hour Between Dog and Wolf is a groundbreaking book by John Coates, a former Wall Street trader turned neuroscientist, revealing how risk-taking physically transforms our bodies and minds. Combining real trading floor experience with cutting-edge science, it explains the biological underpinnings of market bubbles, crashes, and decision-making under pressure. Highly rated and recognized in neuropsychology and business circles, this book offers unique insights and practical strategies for mastering stress and risk in professional and personal life. ## Description “ Brilliant.” — David Brooks, The New York Times “ A profoundly unconventional book . . . So absorbing that I wound up reading it twice .” — Bloomberg Finalist for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year What happens to your body when you take risks? What happens to it when you make or lose a lot of money? In this startling book, physiologist and former Wall Street trader John Coates vividly illustrates what happens to your body when you engage in risk taking. You transform into a different person, a change Coates refers to as "the hour between dog and wolf." He tells a gripping story of a group of traders caught in a bull market and then a crash. As the excitement builds he takes us inside the traders' bodies to see the biology of risk taking at work, a biology shared by athletes, politicians, soldiers - anyone who ventures beyond their safety zone. Coates also discusses how men and women excel at different types of risk; how the stress of failure damages our health; and how we can train our bodies so that they help rather than hinder our risk taking. Revealing the biology behind bubbles and crashes, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf sheds new and surprising light on issues that affect us all. Review: Must read for any trader - What an amazing read. The first time I have seen someone connect biology and trading, and make such amazing and convincing arguments and observations in the process. I think this is a must have in any traders bookshelf. When you want to take a break from charts and financial analysis, pick this one up and you will learn important information. The book is all about explaining what is happening in our body when we trade. A behind the scenes look that shows how our nervous system combined with hormones interact with our body and what happens when we trade. What happens when we take on risk, when we manage the positions, take on more risk, etc. What happens when we succeed wildly and also when we crash badly. The book ends with some high level policy advice that I agree: markets would benefit from increasing the number of women and older men participating in them. It also has much advice at an individual level, how to condition yourself to become better at handling stress. All in all, loved this book! Review: a time when we could not easily distinguish one from the other - Dusk, in medieval times, was the hour between dog and wolf, a time when we could not easily distinguish one from the other. There was a pervasive fear that the dog you knew could become a wolf. Author John Coates worked on Wall Street, in the 1990s, trading derivatives for Goldman Sachs, then Merrill Lynch, and finally running a desk for Deutsche Bank. During this time, the Nasdaq rose from 600 to a peak of just over 5,000! This spectacular rise was unsupported by any hard financial data. Translates into non-trading terms that means that the growth was based on a widely accepted delusion. The economist, John Maynard Keynes, noted in the 1930s that markets could remain irrational longer than investors could remain solvent. In 2000, the Nasdaq collapsed dropping more than 3,000 points in about a year. “While they last, (market) bubbles are fun,” notes Coates. During this period, he observed trader’s turn from dog to wolf. Investors egged on by traders were putting money into companies with inexplicable business models, in internet industries they did not understand. Coates noted at the time that it was almost impossible to engage in a reasoned discussion with either the owner or the investors. According to folk wisdom, behind this type of mayhem lies overwhelming greed. It leaves no place for the sober thought that what cannot last, will not last. Coates observed traders moving from assessing risk and making professional judgement accordingly, to believing that they knew what was going to happen. He observed “they even walk differently: more erect, more purposeful, their very bearing carrying a hint of danger: ‘Don’t mess with me,’ their bodies seem to say. ‘I can handle anything.’” Their behaviour caught Coates’ during the dot.com era. It was undeniable that people were changing. Traders were slowly becoming euphoric and delusional. They were placing ever larger bets on ever worsening risk-reward trade-offs. This type of behaviour has been identified in other areas, particularly politics. Lord David Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary, a neurologist by training, called the disorder, the Hubris Syndrome. It is characterised by “recklessness, an inattention to detail, overwhelming self-confidence, and contempt for others.” What struck Coates at the time was the relative immunity of women to this frenzy. Some had suggested that the mood was driven by the use of cocaine, but the extent of drug use was wildly exaggerated. Coates became convinced that we should be looking at traders’ biology. He hypothesised that the extreme overconfidence and risk-taking displayed during bubbles may be a chemically induced pathological behaviour. This could explain the difference between male and female responses. Coates retired from Wall Street and returned to the University of Cambridge, where he had earned his Ph.D in economics, and spent the next four years retraining in neuroscience and endocrinology. He designed experiments to test the hypothesis that the “winner effect” exists in the financial markets. The “winner effect” has been identified in animals who have won fights, and now with even higher testosterone, go on to more risky fights. A similar phenomenon can be observed in sportsmen. Through observation and experiments, Coates and others have been able to identify how our physiology actually determines, not simply affects, behaviour. This is a powerful and counterintuitive insight. In the west, we have been raised on the notion that our brains control our bodies, but reliable science is fast showing the reality is just the opposite. Kehaneman and Twersky studied the effects of behaviour on economics throughout the 20th century and won a Nobel Prize for their work. They showed, put simply, how economics is not a function of rational man making rational decisions, but rather that our minds affect our economic decisions in ways we are unaware. Coates highlights the step beyond this – our bodies actually control our thinking in ways we are unaware. Consider a cricket fielder at silly mid-on, a position extremely close to the batsman. The ball leaving the bat can travel at speeds of up to 160 kilometres an hour. Crouched four metres from the batsman does not give the fielder enough time to register the trajectory of the ball consciously. His react to this lethal projectile occurs in 90 milliseconds. The body does the thinking before the mind knows. The speed here is similar to the speed at which decisions have to be made in trading and investment. There is no time for a thorough analysis and research. Many well-known investors, including George Soros, admit being guided, in part, by physiological responses to positions. Soros reports that he used the onset of acute back pain as a signal that there was something wrong with his portfolio. The notion of “gut feeling” implies that in even the most complex mental tasks, such as understanding the stock market, our bodies are giving guidance. Knowing when to take the guidance and when to ignore it is not a simple matter. It is here that knowledge and experience come into play. Our bodies have evolved over centuries to respond to physical risks. Financial risk carries a similar threat, not of risk to life but certainly of risk to lifestyle and social status. Little wonder that the chemical or hormonal responses are similar. Much has already been learned about dealing with stress situation from Sports Science. There is evidence that just as physical toughness can be developed to peak levels as seen in world class athletes, so too can mental toughness. This toughness would allow people in high stress, fast-paced business environments, to function more effectively. That would be very useful. Readability: Light ----+ Serious Insights: High +---- Low Practical: High ---+- Low * Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #43,240 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #46 in Anatomy (Books) #52 in Popular Neuropsychology #93 in Business Decision Making | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 720 Reviews | ## Images ![The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71-C-u5gWRL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Must read for any trader *by K***R on June 16, 2023* What an amazing read. The first time I have seen someone connect biology and trading, and make such amazing and convincing arguments and observations in the process. I think this is a must have in any traders bookshelf. When you want to take a break from charts and financial analysis, pick this one up and you will learn important information. The book is all about explaining what is happening in our body when we trade. A behind the scenes look that shows how our nervous system combined with hormones interact with our body and what happens when we trade. What happens when we take on risk, when we manage the positions, take on more risk, etc. What happens when we succeed wildly and also when we crash badly. The book ends with some high level policy advice that I agree: markets would benefit from increasing the number of women and older men participating in them. It also has much advice at an individual level, how to condition yourself to become better at handling stress. All in all, loved this book! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ a time when we could not easily distinguish one from the other *by I***N on April 12, 2017* Dusk, in medieval times, was the hour between dog and wolf, a time when we could not easily distinguish one from the other. There was a pervasive fear that the dog you knew could become a wolf. Author John Coates worked on Wall Street, in the 1990s, trading derivatives for Goldman Sachs, then Merrill Lynch, and finally running a desk for Deutsche Bank. During this time, the Nasdaq rose from 600 to a peak of just over 5,000! This spectacular rise was unsupported by any hard financial data. Translates into non-trading terms that means that the growth was based on a widely accepted delusion. The economist, John Maynard Keynes, noted in the 1930s that markets could remain irrational longer than investors could remain solvent. In 2000, the Nasdaq collapsed dropping more than 3,000 points in about a year. “While they last, (market) bubbles are fun,” notes Coates. During this period, he observed trader’s turn from dog to wolf. Investors egged on by traders were putting money into companies with inexplicable business models, in internet industries they did not understand. Coates noted at the time that it was almost impossible to engage in a reasoned discussion with either the owner or the investors. According to folk wisdom, behind this type of mayhem lies overwhelming greed. It leaves no place for the sober thought that what cannot last, will not last. Coates observed traders moving from assessing risk and making professional judgement accordingly, to believing that they knew what was going to happen. He observed “they even walk differently: more erect, more purposeful, their very bearing carrying a hint of danger: ‘Don’t mess with me,’ their bodies seem to say. ‘I can handle anything.’” Their behaviour caught Coates’ during the dot.com era. It was undeniable that people were changing. Traders were slowly becoming euphoric and delusional. They were placing ever larger bets on ever worsening risk-reward trade-offs. This type of behaviour has been identified in other areas, particularly politics. Lord David Owen, the former British Foreign Secretary, a neurologist by training, called the disorder, the Hubris Syndrome. It is characterised by “recklessness, an inattention to detail, overwhelming self-confidence, and contempt for others.” What struck Coates at the time was the relative immunity of women to this frenzy. Some had suggested that the mood was driven by the use of cocaine, but the extent of drug use was wildly exaggerated. Coates became convinced that we should be looking at traders’ biology. He hypothesised that the extreme overconfidence and risk-taking displayed during bubbles may be a chemically induced pathological behaviour. This could explain the difference between male and female responses. Coates retired from Wall Street and returned to the University of Cambridge, where he had earned his Ph.D in economics, and spent the next four years retraining in neuroscience and endocrinology. He designed experiments to test the hypothesis that the “winner effect” exists in the financial markets. The “winner effect” has been identified in animals who have won fights, and now with even higher testosterone, go on to more risky fights. A similar phenomenon can be observed in sportsmen. Through observation and experiments, Coates and others have been able to identify how our physiology actually determines, not simply affects, behaviour. This is a powerful and counterintuitive insight. In the west, we have been raised on the notion that our brains control our bodies, but reliable science is fast showing the reality is just the opposite. Kehaneman and Twersky studied the effects of behaviour on economics throughout the 20th century and won a Nobel Prize for their work. They showed, put simply, how economics is not a function of rational man making rational decisions, but rather that our minds affect our economic decisions in ways we are unaware. Coates highlights the step beyond this – our bodies actually control our thinking in ways we are unaware. Consider a cricket fielder at silly mid-on, a position extremely close to the batsman. The ball leaving the bat can travel at speeds of up to 160 kilometres an hour. Crouched four metres from the batsman does not give the fielder enough time to register the trajectory of the ball consciously. His react to this lethal projectile occurs in 90 milliseconds. The body does the thinking before the mind knows. The speed here is similar to the speed at which decisions have to be made in trading and investment. There is no time for a thorough analysis and research. Many well-known investors, including George Soros, admit being guided, in part, by physiological responses to positions. Soros reports that he used the onset of acute back pain as a signal that there was something wrong with his portfolio. The notion of “gut feeling” implies that in even the most complex mental tasks, such as understanding the stock market, our bodies are giving guidance. Knowing when to take the guidance and when to ignore it is not a simple matter. It is here that knowledge and experience come into play. Our bodies have evolved over centuries to respond to physical risks. Financial risk carries a similar threat, not of risk to life but certainly of risk to lifestyle and social status. Little wonder that the chemical or hormonal responses are similar. Much has already been learned about dealing with stress situation from Sports Science. There is evidence that just as physical toughness can be developed to peak levels as seen in world class athletes, so too can mental toughness. This toughness would allow people in high stress, fast-paced business environments, to function more effectively. That would be very useful. Readability: Light ----+ Serious Insights: High +---- Low Practical: High ---+- Low * Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Market Behavior is Human Behavior *by J***H on September 21, 2012* Investors are well served by studying behaviorial and decision-making psychology broadly and then selectively transferring that knowledge to financial markets. Arguably, the most influential readings come from authors who are not directly involved in financial markets. For example, the Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by former CIA staffer Richard Heuer captures the pitfalls of making decisions when faced with incomplete information. Stepping back further, to readings about the emerging discipline of neuroeconomics, requires a basic understanding of brain science and physiology. There are some useful layman's guides to these subjects, such as Brain Rules by John Medina but what's been missing is a book that ties together a cohesive explanation of why your brain and physiology drive your behavior and how this collective impact can translate into a greater understanding of market behavior. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf succeeds in this objective. Using both plain language and vivid trading room stories, author John Coates has written an important book for finance industry professionals who want to expand their understanding of the biological underpinnings of behaviorial finance. The book's fictitious examples of trading floor scenarios are particularly effective. Science always becomes more interesting when its explained with personalized situations. Coates has succeeded in connecting the neuroscience with the behaviorial / cognitive psychology that's most relevant to investors. Finally, the 'suggested reading' section is excellent, a primer for further study that's accessible to non-scientists. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind - On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything - Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/18336948-the-hour-between-dog-and-wolf-how-risk-taking-transforms](https://www.desertcart.be/products/18336948-the-hour-between-dog-and-wolf-how-risk-taking-transforms) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-07-19*