You got a problem with that?

Have your good intentions of investing perhaps turned into something else, something else you fear has become a gambling addiction?

With the rise of the internet, discount brokers and the rapid fire world we live in, it's all too easy for some investors to turn into gamblers, in the world biggest casino - the world's stock markets.

According to psychologist Paul Good, if you exhibit five of the following 11 traits, you most likely have a gambling addiction:

1. You engage in high volume trading, where "action" is more compelling than the objective of the trade;
2. You are constantly preoccupied with your investments;
3. You need to invest more and more money or increase your leverage to feel excited;
4. You have repeatedly tried to stop or control your market activity and failed;
5. You become restless and irritable when you try to cut down or stop investing;
6. You invest to escape problems, relieve depression, or distract yourself from painful emotions;
7. You sometimes have to increase your position in an investment after a loss - chasing your losses;
8. You have lied to conceal the extent of your involvement in the market;
9. You have committed an illegal act to finance your market activity;
10. You are jeopardizing significant relationships or your job because of excessive involvement in the market;
11. You have relied on others to bail you out when you got into desperate financial situations.

Tally up your score. For those who scored five or higher, why not check out a Gambler's Anonymous meeting near you?



JW

Adapted from Canadian Business.

The Confused Capitalist