Getting into finance from the bench?

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From the inbox, a organic Ph.D. who's thinking about getting out of chemistry and into finance:

My other passion is my retirement.  I love playing with my 401k and IRAs and began to read more on the finer aspects of finance, particularly the trade and research within the financial world.  I have a few questions about the profession: 

1)  How hard is it to get a job with no business experience, or a weak business acumen?
2)  Do companies overlook this when PhD's are applying with a scientific degree assuming they can undergo a short course?
3)  When applying for this type of job do you tailor your resume in a less scientific manner?  What should your resume/CV contain?
4)  Lastly how do you even get noticed for a position as an analyst/trader/researcher with a scientific PhD vs an MBA? 

I'm just now reading more into the profession as an analyst and I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future.  I was hoping that your readers might also shed some light on the profession and what advantage a PhD would have in the industry, and are scientific PhD's something that companies are looking for? 

I know that chemists do indeed go into finance; you'll see them occasionally in the comments here and especially at In the Pipeline. Finance seems to be relatively low barrier-to-entry (i.e. it's who you know, not necessarily what your degree or what your resume looks like), but I suspect it's relatively difficult to stay in the field (or at least, there's fairly high turnover.) I am sure that chemists get hired as financial analysts; I assume there's some sort of degree/certification that's needed.

But I'm basically talking ex recto. Readers, what do you think?