Not all traders gamble, but some gamblers trade: a latent class analysis of trading and gambling behaviors among retail investors

IF 3.9 3区医学 Q1 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Public Health Pub Date : 2025-05-14 DOI:10.1016/j.puhe.2025.105742

Ainhoa Coloma-Carmona , José Luis Carballo , Fernando Miró-Llinares , Jesús C. Aguerri

{"title":"Not all traders gamble, but some gamblers trade: a latent class analysis of trading and gambling behaviors among retail investors","authors":"Ainhoa Coloma-Carmona , José Luis Carballo , Fernando Miró-Llinares , Jesús C. Aguerri","doi":"10.1016/j.puhe.2025.105742","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>This study aimed to identify subgroups of retail investors based on their engagement in trading and gambling activities, and to examine differences in involvement, demographics, substance use, impulsivity, cognitive biases, problem gambling, and disordered trading.</div></div><div><h3>Study design</h3><div>Cross-sectional, population-based study using panel data. Quota sampling and post-stratification weights were applied using data from a prior population-based random digital dial telephone survey.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Data were collected from 1,429 Spanish adults (aged 18–64). Participants reported involvement in trading of 8 financial instruments (e.g., cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs) and 12 gambling (e.g., lotteries, sports betting) and gambling-like activities (e.g., loot boxes, skin betting). 28.6 % of respondents engaged in non-professional trading.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Using weighted latent class analysis we identified three distinct subgroups of retail investors: <em>crypto-traders</em> (52.4 %), focused on cryptocurrency trading with minimal gambling; <em>stock-traders</em> (32 %), involved in stocks/ETFs and lotteries, and <em>gambling-traders</em> (15.6 %), heavily involved in high-risk trading and various gambling activities. Although <em>gambling-traders</em> were not the highest investors in terms of trading volume, this class exhibited the highest frequency of trading and gambling, impulsivity, gambling-related cognitive biases, rates of disordered trading, and illicit substance use. 24.9 % of <em>gambling-traders</em> scored for problem gambling (PGSI≥8), compared to 0.5 % of <em>crypto-traders</em> and 3.5 % of <em>stock-traders</em>. <strong>Conclusions</strong>: Not all retail investors seem to extend their gambling behaviors to financial markets; however, those with higher impulsive traits and gambling-related cognitive biases tend to combine trading with gambling. This combination is strongly associated with problem gambling and disordered trading.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49651,"journal":{"name":"Public Health","volume":"244 ","pages":"Article 105742"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Public Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003335062500188X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to identify subgroups of retail investors based on their engagement in trading and gambling activities, and to examine differences in involvement, demographics, substance use, impulsivity, cognitive biases, problem gambling, and disordered trading.

Study design

Cross-sectional, population-based study using panel data. Quota sampling and post-stratification weights were applied using data from a prior population-based random digital dial telephone survey.

Methods

Data were collected from 1,429 Spanish adults (aged 18–64). Participants reported involvement in trading of 8 financial instruments (e.g., cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs) and 12 gambling (e.g., lotteries, sports betting) and gambling-like activities (e.g., loot boxes, skin betting). 28.6 % of respondents engaged in non-professional trading.

Results

Using weighted latent class analysis we identified three distinct subgroups of retail investors: crypto-traders (52.4 %), focused on cryptocurrency trading with minimal gambling; stock-traders (32 %), involved in stocks/ETFs and lotteries, and gambling-traders (15.6 %), heavily involved in high-risk trading and various gambling activities. Although gambling-traders were not the highest investors in terms of trading volume, this class exhibited the highest frequency of trading and gambling, impulsivity, gambling-related cognitive biases, rates of disordered trading, and illicit substance use. 24.9 % of gambling-traders scored for problem gambling (PGSI≥8), compared to 0.5 % of crypto-traders and 3.5 % of stock-traders. Conclusions: Not all retail investors seem to extend their gambling behaviors to financial markets; however, those with higher impulsive traits and gambling-related cognitive biases tend to combine trading with gambling. This combination is strongly associated with problem gambling and disordered trading.

查看原文本刊更多论文

并非所有的交易员都赌博，但有些赌徒进行交易：对散户投资者交易和赌博行为的潜在阶级分析

本研究旨在根据散户投资者在交易和赌博活动中的参与度来确定他们的子群体，并研究他们在参与度、人口统计学、物质使用、冲动性、认知偏差、问题赌博和无序交易方面的差异。研究设计使用面板数据的横断面、基于人群的研究。配额抽样和分层后的权重使用先前基于人口的随机数字拨号电话调查的数据。方法收集1429名西班牙成年人（18-64岁）的数据。参与者报告说，他们参与了8种金融工具（如加密货币、股票、etf）和12种赌博（如彩票、体育博彩）和赌博类活动（如战利品箱、皮肤博彩）的交易。28.6%的受访者从事非专业交易。使用加权潜在类分析，我们确定了三个不同的零售投资者亚组：加密交易者（52.4%），专注于加密货币交易，赌博最少；股票交易员（32%），参与股票/ etf和彩票交易；赌博交易员（15.6%），大量参与高风险交易和各种赌博活动。虽然就交易量而言，赌博交易者并不是最高的投资者，但这类人表现出最高的交易和赌博频率、冲动、赌博相关的认知偏差、无序交易率和非法药物使用。24.9%的赌博交易者得分为问题赌博（PGSI≥8），相比之下，加密货币交易者为0.5%，股票交易者为3.5%。结论：并非所有散户投资者似乎都将其赌博行为扩展到金融市场；然而，那些具有较高冲动特征和赌博相关认知偏见的人倾向于将交易与赌博结合起来。这种组合与问题赌博和无序交易密切相关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Public Health 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

7.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

280

审稿时长

37 days

期刊介绍： Public Health is an international, multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal. It publishes original papers, reviews and short reports on all aspects of the science, philosophy, and practice of public health.