Sunday 15 December 2013

Are You an Addict?

1. I am preoccupied with daily information about my trades or I am preoccupied with thoughts of past and future trades.

2. A major reason I trade is to escape worries, pressures, anxiety, depression.

3. I experience extreme highs when I win and extreme lows when I lose.

4. I feel uncomfortable with accumulated cash in my account and have an urgent need to keep it in action.

5. I am restless or irritable when unable to trade. For example, when short of money, away on vacation or trying to cut back.

6. I need to increase the amount traded to maintain the high or the excitement.

7. My investments or trades are increasingly speculative or risky.

8. I have more money at risk in the markets than I can afford to lose.

9. I often engage in high-volume trading, to outguess the direction of the market.

10. My trades are highly leveraged.

11. I do not open brokerage statements to avoid having to think about my losses.

12. I borrow money from family, friends, credit cards or other sources to trade.

13. I have not yet paid back the money.

14. I have had someone else provide money to relieve a trading crisis.

15. I have lied to hide my trading or how much money was involved.

16. When losses pile up, I increase my bets in an effort to recoup the losses.

17. I want to stop trading but do not think I can, or I am unsuccessful when I try to control, cut back or stop.

18. I risk losing or have lost work, family or other commitments by dint of the time and money taken up by my trading.

19. I committed an illegal act to get money to trade or to pay back a loan for my trading.

20. I wonder whether I am gambling excessively in the markets.

Scoring your YES answers:
0 - No gambling problem
1 or 2 - Possible future problem
3 or 4 - Mild current problem
5 or 6 - Moderate current problem
7 or more - Severe current problem

Source: Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.

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