FOMO, Financial Trading, and Problem Gambling in College Students

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests speculative trading is a type of gambling. Additionally, in recent years a fear of missing out (FOMO) on outsized short-term monetary gains through speculative trading has been highlighted as a driving force of financial behaviors. The current study sought to determine whether financial FOMO is linked to stock market and cryptocurrency trading activities and problem gambling severity in both traditional gambling and in trading domains, among a sample of 258 college students. Results of binomial regression and hurdle model analyses found financial FOMO was linked to participation in stock market and cryptocurrency trading. Financial FOMO was also associated with problem gambling severity in traditional gambling and stock market trading domains, but not in the cryptocurrency trading domain. Results suggest speculative trading may constitute problem gambling and imply financial FOMO may be an important construct to investigate in relation to problem gambling.