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According to a recent study published by researchers at the University of Pisa, gamblers often suffer from "impulsive, compulsive, addictive behaviours." Using 20 patients undergoing treatment for pathological gambling disorder at an Italian clinic as their sample, the scientists tested patients' ability to modify their behavior in response to changed circumstances.
Patients were asked to play a "card-matching" game under one set of rules initially. But "after 10 cards have been selected correctly in one category, the interviewer changes the category without informing the subject and from that moment on, answers which would have been correct for the previous category are considered wrong. The subjects have to change the principles according to which they pair off the cards in order to discover the new category chosen by the interviewer."
So how do you think these compulsive gamblers fared under these changed circumstances? Did they roll with the punches, figure out the new "angle," and keep on winning? Sadly, no. They couldn't hack it. Gamblers who exhibited "normal intellectual, linguistic and visual-spatial abilities" in all other respects were found to:
- Suffer from "impairment of decision-making"
- "Make choices according to an immediate reward, despite being fully aware of the long-term negative consequences"
As a result, they proved incapable of learning how to play the game once the rules changed. They stuck to the pattern they knew, regardless of the consequences.
Fool member Jeff Nazdek agreed to share with us his experiences as a "professional" day trader:
 | Online trading ... can become an addiction, and the cyber-world can become a substitute for work and family. You may come to feel that you can't be away from your computer monitor for 10 minutes or you will miss a hot stock or your position may downtick. ... If you make a bad trade or fall behind in a position, you might "double up" ... trying to make it back all at once. These are the same symptoms of compulsive gambling and are very easy to fall into.
After one full year of online day trading, I've come to an important conclusion: it is not as profitable as investing for the longer term, at least for me. After carefully analyzing my hundreds of trades and monthly statements, it was apparent that several "buy and holds" ... this spring accounted for the bulk of my profits, while the day trades whittled away at those gains, slowly but surely. Like gambling, the odds are stacked against you, and the more you play, the more you lose. |