the issue with trading addiction is that there is no good books or a clear definition to it. for me i am dealing with it as a normal gambling addiction. but it is quite different.
it is between real life trading ( like buying a house at a low price and sell it after a year at a higher price) an a pure gambling ( like a slot machine or a roulette).
I may explain it in this way
if we put a scale from 1 to 100 ( you can call it gambling scale) where 1 is just for normal trading in the real life and 100 is for playing a pure gambling game like a roulette in the casino. moving from 1 to up is moving closer to the gambling.
but at what stage we can say this activity is a gambling??? a 50 at this scale ? A 50 is the middle between both ( i don’t know what it will be a good example for 50, but It could be taking a risky investment like opening a new restaurant where you invest all your money on it and you don’t have a good knowledge in this kind of business)
I may add here another example from the upper part of the scale, like sport betting you can give it a 90 but for sure it is not 100. it carry some kind of analysis ( it is not a pure luck like a slot machine ).
trading forex or stocks in the market it can really takes all the places from 1 to 100 based on how you are doing it. For instance :
- if you put your money with an index fund and kept it there for years it may represent 1 in the scale.
- if you select some diversified shares and kept it for few years it may represent 5 in the scale
- but if you are changing them once each year you will go up in the scale say you reached 10,
- if you trade them monthly you will continue going up say 15,
- if you trade them daily you are at the middle range may be 40 but if you trade them like CFDs with a leverage say 1:25 and daily you have crossed the 50 level for sure,
- if you use a 1:500 leverage and follow the charts minute by minute then for sure you are at the 80 to 100 level.
Once I discuss the online trading as a gambling like behavior it is hard to convince a trader who is at the upper level of this scale that he is gambling because he thinks that he is trading. And harder to convince the trader who is at the 2nd quarter of this scale that he is at a risk of addiction as well
Well, this is my attempt to explain why this kind of addiction is difficult and how it could take you years before you know even that you are an addict which is exactly what happened with me.
also it is an attempt to say to deal with an addiction to activity at level 25 is different than dealing with addiction to activity at level 75. because the first is not an obvious gambling.
i believe you can’t tell by yourself if a low level activity is really effecting you, may be a friend or a partner who can see your mood changes, your excessive thought, …… and the other gambling symptoms that you may not be able to see it by yourself.