Retail and institutional trading detached itself from gambling long ago. But too many aspiring traders are quietly fighting gambling habits dressed up as trading. We're building the space for education, empowerment, and refuge.
Help us reach 1,000,000 signatures from traders and industry leaders to change the face of trade gambling.
We exist because for far too long the retail and institutional trading industry has detached itself from gambling. We know professional traders are not gamblers — but many aspiring professionals succumb to gambling habits that look like trading from the outside.
We want to create the space for education, empowerment and refuge for people suffering from trade gambling symptoms.
We also want to spread awareness to the wider industry of what trade gambling is, and provide the tools to help people win their trade gambling battles — which may even mean quitting their pursuit of trading permanently.
Help us get 1,000,000 signatures from traders and industry leaders to transform the face of trade gambling.
Professional trading is not gambling, but many aspiring professional traders gamble.
Trading is a skill that can be developed through commitment, data-informed edge and trade psychology.
Trading skill deteriorates when decision-making becomes compulsive.
Sustainable trading prioritizes process over outcomes.
Trading is not a means to thrill-seek, seek excitement, or chase adrenaline.
Trading firms, platforms and educators share responsibility in promoting healthy trading behaviors.
Trade psychology is not a substitute for a positive edge or proper risk management.
Risk management is a psychological discipline, not just a technical one.
Trade psychology education should be promoted, inclusive and democratised.
Traders, and their friends and family, should be aware of the signs of trade gambling harms.
Traders who show persistent signs of gambling harms should seek professional help and not rule out permanently quitting.
Awareness and early intervention into persistent trade gambling reduces long-term financial, psychological and physical harm.
Free, confidential support services for anyone affected by gambling harms — for traders, and for the people who care about them.
This is not an exhaustive list. If you're in crisis or in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency services.
Trade Don't Gamble is created by the founders of Trade Mentorfy, a trade psychology improvement platform. The campaign was created because the founders care about helping aspiring traders break free from the destructive addiction of trade gambling. The campaign is fully run as a not-for-profit.
Firstly, please sign the pledge. Secondly, please email hello@tradementorfy.com with the subject line "TDG" to learn about potential partnership opportunities.
Thank you for being honest — this is a monumental and positive step. Please head to the Help section of our website for more information.
Please encourage them to head to the Help section of our website for more information.
Please head to tradementorfy.com — as a thank you for supporting the campaign, use TDG as a promo code for 10% off.
Firstly, thank you — and don't discount how small ripples can make waves. We have much planned for the industry, from research, policy formation and lobbying to new interventions, services and programmes to help those suffering from trade gambling. Keep an eye on your email to stay updated!
"Trade gambling" isn't a clinical term, but the behaviours it describes — compulsive risk-taking, chasing losses, trading for the emotional rush rather than an edge — overlap closely with recognised gambling disorder criteria. We use the term to speak directly to traders, in language the industry understands.
No. The pledge is free and simply adds your name to a public statement that trading is a profession, not a bet. It carries no financial obligation.
Your details are used only to record your signature and to update you on the campaign and other relevant Trade Mentorfy news for you. We don't sell or share your information with third parties. We promise no spam!
Fourteen evidence-based insights — from classic gambling research to studies of retail and institutional traders, and their real cost to health and family life.
The DSM-5 classifies gambling disorder alongside substance addictions, defined by persistent, recurrent problem gambling causing significant impairment or distress — including chasing losses, lying about involvement, and jeopardising relationships or work.
American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5 (2013)
A landmark study of Finnish investors combined trading records with psychological profiles and driving records, finding that overconfident investors and those most prone to sensation-seeking traded significantly more often — mirroring traits seen in problem gamblers.
Grinblatt & Keloharju, "Sensation Seeking, Overconfidence, and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance (2009)
Prospect theory showed that people feel the pain of a loss roughly twice as intensely as the pleasure of an equivalent gain — a bias that drives both gamblers and traders to hold losing positions too long while cutting winners too early.
Kahneman & Tversky, "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk," Econometrica (1979)
Analysis of over 60,000 retail brokerage accounts found the households that traded most earned the lowest net returns — underperforming the market by roughly 6.5 percentage points a year, driven by overconfidence rather than skill.
Barber & Odean, "Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth," Journal of Finance (2000)
Neuroimaging shows that "near-miss" outcomes activate the same dopaminergic reward circuitry as an actual win, and that this response is amplified in more severe gamblers — reinforcing continued play even after a loss. The same mechanism is thought to drive traders to re-enter a market immediately after a near-win trade.
Clark et al., "Gambling Near-Misses Enhance Motivation to Gamble and Recruit Win-Related Brain Circuitry," Neuron (2009)
Classic conditioning research established that rewards delivered on a variable (unpredictable) schedule produce the strongest, most persistent behaviour of all reinforcement patterns — precisely the schedule that both slot machines and volatile markets deliver.
Skinner, "Science and Human Behavior" (1953); Ferster & Skinner, "Schedules of Reinforcement" (1957)
Foundational research found people consistently overestimate their ability to influence outcomes that are actually driven by chance — a bias repeatedly observed in both gamblers reading patterns into random results and traders reading patterns into noisy price charts.
Langer, "The Illusion of Control," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (1975)
Behavioural testing (the Iowa Gambling Task) found that individuals who struggle to learn from mounting losses and keep chasing short-term rewards perform poorly on tasks simulating real-world decision-making — a pattern repeatedly used to study impaired decision-making in gambling disorder and extended by later researchers to risk-taking in trading contexts.
Bechara, Damasio, Damasio & Anderson, "Insensitivity to Future Consequences," Cognition (1994)
The World Health Organization identifies increased mental illness and suicide risk as a direct health harm of gambling. A Swedish nationwide register study found people with a diagnosed gambling disorder were 15 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population, and a Victoria, Australia study found at least 4.2% of suicides in the state were gambling-related. The same compulsive, secretive patterns are reported in traders who gamble.
WHO, "Gambling" fact sheet (2024); Karlsson & Håkansson, Journal of Behavioral Addictions (2018); Rintoul et al., The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific (2023)
WHO notes gambling can "threaten health" through the sustained stress response it triggers — disrupted sleep, elevated blood pressure and cardiovascular strain are commonly reported alongside gambling disorder, consistent with the physiological cost of any chronic behavioural addiction. For traders, this shows up as the same fatigue, insomnia and burnout seen in compulsive gamblers glued to a screen chasing the next outcome.
WHO, "Gambling" fact sheet (2024)
WHO estimates that people gambling at harmful levels generate around 60% of the gambling industry's revenue — meaning the financial damage is concentrated in the people who can least sustain it. Gambling harm diverts household spending from essentials, driving food insecurity, housing problems and difficulty accessing healthcare or education. The same diversion of capital — trading rent money, savings or credit to "get back to even" — is a defining feature of trade gambling.
WHO, "Gambling" fact sheet (2024); Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (2019)
Research commissioned by WHO found that for every person gambling at high-risk levels, an average of six other people — usually family members — are affected. Harms include relationship breakdown, family violence, financial distress and neglect of children, and WHO notes this legacy of harm "can endure throughout one's life and transmit intergenerationally." Partners and families of trade gamblers describe an identical pattern of broken trust and financial fallout.
Goodwin, Browne, Rockloff & Rose, "A Typical Problem Gambler Affects Six Others," International Gambling Studies (2017); WHO, "Gambling" fact sheet (2024)
Public health messaging research on gambling harms (the model behind campaigns such as GambleAware and BeGambleAware) shows that clear, destigmatised language and early identification of harmful patterns significantly increase the likelihood that people seek help before harm escalates.
Public Health England, "Gambling-related harms evidence review" (2021)
Studies of professional versus amateur risk-takers consistently find that experts evaluate their own performance by the quality of their decision process, not by any single result — the same discipline behavioural finance research recommends to counter gambling-like trading patterns.
Statman, "Behavioral Finance: The Second Generation," CFA Institute Research Foundation (2019)
Add your name to the movement. Tell the industry: trading is a profession — not a bet.