A new type of addict is showing up at Gamblers Anonymous meetings across the country: investors hooked on the market’s riskiest trades.

At Gamblers Anonymous in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan, one man called options “the crack cocaine” of the stock market. Another said he faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in trading losses after borrowing from a loan shark to double down on stocks.

They were among a group of about 60 people, almost all men, who sat in rows of metal folding chairs in a crowded church basement that evening. Some shared their struggle with addiction – not on sports-betting apps or at Las Vegas casinos – but using brokerage apps like Robinhood.

Many of the men, and scores of others around the country, discovered trading and betting during the pandemic boom that began in 2020. Some were drawn in by big wins in meme stocks and other viral stock sensations, leading them into even higher-octane wagers that offer the chance to put up a small amount of cash for a potentially mammoth return – or more often, a crushing loss.

Others bought and sold cryptocurrencies on apps that make trading as easy as ordering takeout on Uber Eats or toiletries on Amazon. In an age when sports betting has become an accepted pastime – accessible by the flick of the thumb on an iPhone app – they found the same rush betting on dogecoin, Tesla or Nvidia as wagering on Patrick Mahomes to carry the Kansas City Chiefs to the Super Bowl.

Doctors and counselors say they are seeing more cases of compulsive gambling in financial markets, or an uncontrollable urge to bet. They expect the problem to worsen. The stock market has climbed 23% this year and bitcoin recently topped $100,000 for the first time, tempting many people to pile into speculative trades. Wall Street keeps introducing newer and riskier ways to play the market through stock options or complex exchange-traded products that use borrowed money and compound the risk for investors…

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