{"id":172061,"date":"2025-09-21T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172061\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:32:10","slug":"day-trading-addiction-3-warning-signs-from-a-former-trader-who-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/172061\/","title":{"rendered":"Day Trading Addiction: 3 Warning Signs From a Former Trader Who Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Gawor, a former sales executive who says he was addicted to day trading<\/a> for more than a decade before he quit the market. He is now a life coach who helps others who struggle with addiction<\/a>. Business Insider verified his trading activity through screenshots of his brokerage account. The following has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

I’m someone who didn’t really understand how addictions<\/a> happen. People who were addicts, to me, were of a certain social class\u2014were low-lives, were alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. “I’m not an addict,” I told myself. “I don’t get addicted to stuff.”<\/p>\n

It was only after 12 years, when my trading came to an end, that I realized I was addicted. That sounds crazy, because, looking back, I should have known. But I kept saying: “I’m not an addict. I’m a successful sales leader, an educated professional.”<\/p>\n

I got into the market in my late 30s, day trading from my phone at work. I’d never done any trading before, but I knew other people who were doing it. I had some money from the sale of a property, and I thought I should try to invest it. I thought there was no point in the money just sitting in a bank.<\/p>\n

I guess I was attracted to risk. First, I went into household-name stocks, which were very, very low risk. Then, I started researching. It became kind of a hobby. I got into some chat rooms and investment forums, and later, the investing community on Twitter. It revealed a whole other world to me. People are there giving tips, and then that sucks you in, and you start exploring other stocks.<\/p>\n

At the time, in the UK’s alternative investment market, there were some phenomenal gains being made in small-caps, where stocks could double by 100%, 200%, 300%. I tried those out, and then I started getting some fantastic returns on them. Then, I got my first big win: I was positioned at the right time in an oil and gas exploration company. In two days, I cleared \u00a380,000. It got me hooked.<\/p>\n

I remember the euphoria I had when I was trading. You look at your trading account, and it’s in the six figures, and you just think, “This is amazing. I’ve generated all this from nothing. Fantastic.”<\/p>\n

Part of the attraction, for me, is that I saw it as an intellectual challenge, that I could take on the market and win.<\/p>\n

I started to develop my skills. I took courses<\/a>. I got into technical analysis<\/a> and charting, and I thought I had become quite good. I also started leveraging some of my positions, where, for example, you would only need to put down 20%-30% of your overall position on a trade. That’s fantastic\u2014if it goes your way. If it doesn’t, the losses can also be dramatic.<\/p>\n

I guess what it turned into was a battle against myself. I had started to make losses, and then, started to borrow money on credit cards. I also took out cards in my wife’s name. I was essentially using my brokerage accounts to launder money, using one card to pay up another. I had 12 cards at the time and was just spinning all of them.<\/p>\n

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But the addiction is, you think, you’ve had those wins in the past, so you can recreate that. You will achieve it again, no problem. I was convinced I would beat the market. Borrowing money on credit cards to trade, was, for me, investing in a business. I was investing in myself, because I could actually double or triple or quadruple it.<\/p>\n

Every time, I’d say: I’ll get myself out of this. Then, I would manage to get into a position through successful trades where I made significant profits\u2014sometimes in the six-figures\u2014and cleared my debt. Then, I would lose again, and repeat that same journey.<\/p>\n

I didn’t think I was addicted. But that was the addiction. Any self-doubt I had, I said to myself, “Well, that’s a losing mentality. You’re not going to make a successful trade again if you start thinking like that.”<\/p>\n

I came across a note I wrote to myself years ago. It shows how addiction took control:<\/p>\n

Money Management is essential for successful trading. A disciplined trader takes profits @ targets, cuts losses & outperforms those who keep hanging on to bad trades. Before you enter a trade, write down 3 Nrs: Entry Target Stop.<\/p>\n

Placing a trade without defining these is<\/p>\n

GAMBLING.<\/p>\n

The problem with addiction is that you can’t walk away from it. I guess it was pressure to try and make the money back. I’d be in a meeting at work, and have my phone under my desk, looking at a trading alert. I traded currencies in the middle of the night. I woke up at four or five in the morning to check on positions. I remember driving to pick my daughter up from school, and I had my phone set up showing the markets as I was driving. I mean, that was just insane.<\/p>\n

It all went to shit, to be honest. By 2022, I owed \u00a3145,000. \u00a340,000 of that was in my wife’s name.<\/p>\n

I hid all this stuff. It was a secret. My wife said to me she thought I’d been having an affair. Literally, I was leading another life \u2014 one I didn’t want to admit to myself, and I certainly didn’t want to admit to anyone else.<\/p>\n

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I came to a realization that, financially, I couldn’t carry on. There was no money left to pay the cards off. And I knew my mental health was suffering. I was in a dark, dark place.<\/p>\n

I decided to tell my wife. I was worried, first and foremost, about losing her. She knew I had been trading, but I told her the sums were a lot smaller than they were. To tell her I’d broken her trust\u2014I mean, I committed fraud. She had no idea. I felt like a scumbag.<\/p>\n

It took her time to get over it, but she became incredibly supportive of me getting help.<\/p>\n

I contacted a gambling support charity in the UK called GamCare. They put me into a counseling charity, and I was paired with someone who previously had an addiction to sports betting<\/a>. They were incredibly supportive. It put my situation in perspective as well. I also went to Gamblers Anonymous, and, interestingly, there were people there who also had day trading addiction.<\/p>\n

It was a real relief\u2014a shift of burden\u2014being able to share what had happened. I think I have a much better understanding of addiction now than I did a few years ago.<\/p>\n

I haven’t traded for three and a half years now. My wife and I also made some changes. I suggested she run all our finances. I don’t have control of them anymore. I think she deserves that\u2014I don’t deserve to after what I did.<\/p>\n

It’s so difficult to tell if someone is a trading addict<\/a>. If someone is an alcoholic, you can smell it on them, but with day trading or gambling, there are no visible signs, really. You become a master of leading this double life. But I’d say these are the signs someone’s trading is an addiction instead of a hobby:<\/p>\n

Time spent. I was obsessed with the markets. I spent hours, hours, hours trading. I also consumed a large amount of media around markets and tips and trades.<\/p>\n

When I started to unwire from markets, it made me realize how it had dominated my life. I mean, crazy things like being outside in the summer and actually noticing things. Birds, singing and tweeting. The smell of grass. The sun on my face. I thought, “You do realize how much time you potentially lost, looking at market screens instead of spending time with your kids when they were younger?”<\/p>\n

Being irritable and distant. There was constant pressure and stress. I was worried about the debts and losing the house. The pressure is gut-wrenching.<\/p>\n

If someone asked me, I would just say I was having a tough day at work or whatever. I wouldn’t say that I’m a hundred grand in debt because of my day trading.<\/p>\n

Borrowing money to trade. Very soon after I came out started seeking help for my addiction, my brother said to me: “How did you think you were going to pay this all back?” I said to him I knew I was going to succeed. When I was saying it, it dawned on me it sounded insane.<\/p>\n

When you talk about addiction, some people will immediately say: “addictive personality<\/a>.” I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Before, I didn’t gamble at all. What I’ve come to realize is that everyone’s route to addiction is varied. There’s no kind of set pattern, and everybody’s recovery is also different. It could happen to anyone. That’s the thing.<\/p>\n

Do you struggle with day trading addiction and have a story to share? Contact this reporter at jsor@businessinsider.com.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know has a gambling addiction, call the National Council on Problem Gambling Helpline<\/a> (1-800-522-4700), which provides resources and referrals for all 50 states, Canada, and the US Virgin Islands. Help is available 24\/7 and is 100% confidential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Gawor, a former sales executive who says he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[102900,9038,28,102901,17565,102899,3747,112,2066,3590,8293,3751,2384,447,19500,15186,2394],"class_list":["post-172061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-addict","tag-addiction","tag-business","tag-crazy-thing","tag-credit-card","tag-day-trading-addiction","tag-market","tag-markets","tag-money","tag-people","tag-phone","tag-position","tag-time","tag-trade","tag-wife","tag-work","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}