Traders' mood swings mirror reversals in market

Psychologists say growing numbers of traders, currency dealers and financiers are seeking help for depression and anxiety caused by the economic gloom.

Stephen Pereira of Keats House, the City-focused branch of the Priory Clinic, says the chief worry is job security. But the uncertainty in the markets is itself enough to make some people depressed.

Traders in particular are at risk, according to Thomas Stuttaford, a recently retired Harley Street practitioner and former in-house doctor for several banks.

He says many traders have "hypo-manic" personalities and suffer from severe mood swings, which can shoot up or down as wildly as the markets.

Stuttaford says he has received calls from several former patients in a terrible state.

Jeremy Holt of Paradigm Psychology is a specialist in trader psychology who has worked with banks such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley He says: "Being out of control causes depression, and when markets are collapsing people can feel very out of control."

However, there may be an easy solution. Dorothy Rowe, a psychologist and author of The True Meaning of Money, says people working in the City of London can avoid depression as long as they do not blame themselves for their problems.

Blaming fate or someone else is far more healthy, she says.

So Bernie Ebbers and Kenneth Lay, the former chief executives of WorldCom and Enron, might make good scapegoats.

So could research analysts such as Henry Blodget, whose indiscreet emails rubbishing stocks he was publicly recommending led to Merrill Lynch paying a $100m (E100m) fine last May.

On the other hand, some people will find it possible to avoid the need for blame entirely, as long as their job is safe.

Holt says: "Traders don't often get sucked into a sense of hopelessness when markets collapse. It is not them, but the customers, that are losing money."