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When a Billionaire Speaks Off the Cuff

For a hedge fund manager who carefully manages his public image, Paul Tudor Jones had a minor crisis on his hands.

Mr. Jones, a billionaire and philanthropist of legendary stature in the minds of many Wall Street traders, was forced on Thursday to explain what he meant in remarks that surfaced in a video published by The Washington Post. The video, depicting a University of Virginia symposium in April, shows Mr. Jones attempting to explain why there is a scarcity of female traders.

“As soon as that baby’s lips touch that girl’s bosom, forget it,” Mr. Jones, who has three daughters, says in the video. “Every single investment idea, every desire to understand what’s going to make this go up or go down, is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience, which a man will never share, about a mode of connection between that mother and that baby.”

“I’ve just seen it happen over and over,” he added. “I’m talking about trading, not managing.” The video was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The comments went viral online and were widely criticized. In an e-mail sent to news outlets, Mr. Jones said he was speaking “off the cuff” and referring in particular to “global macro traders,” who work across multiple markets.

“Macro trading requires a high degree of skill, focus and repetition,” Mr. Jones said by way of clarification. “Life events, such as birth, divorce, death of a loved one and other emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success in this specific field of finance.” He added that success was possible “as long as a woman or man has the skill, passion, and repetitions to work through the inevitable life events that arise along the way.”

The episode was an uncomfortable turn for Mr. Jones, who earlier this month was called a “modern-day Robin Hood” by CBS News’s “60 Minutes” in a report on the financier’s charitable foundation.

“My mother told me I was going to be a preacher,” Mr. Jones said in the television special, which cast him in a flattering light.

But his remarks about women seem to have gotten more attention, judging by the response.

Watching the video, there was a “pit in my stomach of how 1950s that is,” Alexandra Lebenthal, chief executive of the financial firm Lebenthal & Company, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday.

“I’m not sure that bonding experience of breastfeeding is all that wonderful,” Ms. Lebenthal added.

Joanna Coles, editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, said on MSNBC: “What you see in this is actually what a lot of men on Wall Street still actually think.”

Mr. Jones’s theory is “scientifically unsound,” Simone Foxman said in Quartz. “Women don’t produce as much cortisol when in risky situations and therefore â€" theoretically at least â€" aren’t as likely to be as overwhelmed by negative emotions.”

Barry Ritholtz, the head of Fusion IQ, wrote on his blog: “There is a valid point to be made about emotions in trading, but it gets lost in the sauce here.”

Writing in Business Insider, Linette Lopez argued that Mr. Jones’s remarks were not sexist, as others had claimed. The issue is a “social, structural” one about “expectation,” she said.

“His point is that women are expected to get married, expected to have children, and expected to keep a house … still,” Ms. Lopez said. “Because of that, there will not be as many women who choose to live the grueling lifestyle of being a trader and a mother at the same time (and become successful traders while doing it) as there are men who are successful fathers and traders.”

The blog Dealbreaker noted Mr. Jones’s “strangely graphic description of breastfeeding.”