Compulsive Traders / Compulsive Trading"Compulsive" in the context of a 12-Step fellowship like Compulsive Traders Anonymous has a very specific, well-established meaning and intention.Full Meaning* Clinical/psychological sense: A compulsion is an irresistible urge to perform a behavior (in this case, trading and investing) that the person recognizes is harmful or excessive, yet feels driven to repeat anyway. It’s not mere preference or enthusiasm — it’s a pattern that has taken on a life of its own, often involving loss of control, escalation despite negative consequences, preoccupation, and using the behavior to regulate emotions (escape, excitement, numbness, validation, etc.).* In recovery communities: It signals “this has become unmanageable through willpower alone.”Our ProgramOur program offers a path of recovery from compulsive trading. Like all addictions, compulsive trading interferes with the life process, and can even be life-threatening. CTA offers a way to stop compulsive trading through practicing the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. The list of statements in the section, “Do Belong in CTA?,” found in the pamphlet Compulsive Traders Anonymous, will help you decide if you are addicted. We believe that two behaviors are common to all of us. First, we cannot stop, and second, we use the addiction to avoid feelings and alter our moods.Why We Came To CTAThe disease of compulsive trading was destroying our lives, our self-esteem, our relationships, our careers, our physical and spiritual health.  Many of us feared mental insanity, physical decline, or suicide. Though our individual behaviors may have been different, our feelings were similar: despair, shame, hopelessness, and anguish, mixed in with intense excitement and forgetfulness. These feelings were always followed by still worse pain. We were starting to see the truth—our problem was progressive, it always got worse. The illusion that the next time would “fix” us, that we would feel better and could then control our behavior, was revealed for what it was—a false promise.
We began to sense that we were spinning downwards, out of control, toward a life of loneliness, misery, bankruptcy, insanity, perhaps even toward death. In these moments of clarity, we were frightened.
We could not stop or control our behavior by ourselves. Our lives had become unmanageable. Finally, when the pain grew great enough, we were ready to try anything, and we came to Compulsive Traders Anonymous.
TopWhy We StayedFor the first time we found people who shared our problem. Others actually understood and felt the same way. We were accepted for who we were. We stayed because of the promise of hope. Later we stayed because of hopes fulfilled.
When we came to CTA, it was suggested that we stop our destructive trading behaviors.For most of us, this meant stopping all sexual behavior for a period of time. Many of us had never done this, and the prospect was unimaginable and terrifying. The thought of sobriety seemed painful, impossible, or just plain boring. Some of us felt that we would die if we didn’t have sex.We began to work the Twelve Steps of the program. For some of us, it was the first time we were ever clear enough of the addiction to find out who we were. We began to have a spiritual relationship with a Power greater than ourselves. For many it became a healing and loving relationship.
It became clear that our problems could not be solved by ourselves alone. We needed the strength and wisdom of the fellowship to learn how to live without engaging in our addiction, one day at a time.
While at first we stayed because we knew we had to, in order to survive, we now stay because we want to. We stay because we know it is here we can fill the emptiness. Here we can find what we searched for in all the dark places of our addiction.  This program of recovery offers dignity of self.
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of CTA offer a healing home in which our spirits can at first rest, then grow, then finally soar.

As adapted from Alcoholics AnonymousHOW IT WORKSRarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it — then you are ready to take certain steps.At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.Remember that we deal with compulsive trading — cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power — that One is God. May you find Him now!Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:1. We admitted we were powerless over compulsive trading — that our lives had become unmanageable.2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive traders, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.Our description of the compulsive trader, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:(a) That we were compulsive traders and could not manage our own lives.(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our compulsive trading.(c) That God could and would if He were sought.Adapted from pages 58-60 in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. Copyright © by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001. www.aa.org

Currently all CTA meetings are Double Winners Meetings and we meet once a week at 5pm Eastern on Friday afternoons except on days when the NYSE is closed on Fridays in which case we meet on Thursday at 5ppm Eastern.

Recommended Basics of RecoveryThese suggestions are not ends in themselves. They are practical means of seeking conscious contact with God as we understand Him, practicing the principles of the program, and staying recovered one day at a time.At First:
* Meetings: Make a meeting a day.
* Phone Calls: Make three program calls a day (an in-person conversation with a fellow in recovery counts).
* Writing: Spend ten minutes a day writing—whether a brief inventory, gratitude list, or honest reflection on the day’s trading and spiritual condition. The purpose is rigorous honesty before God, not unstructured journaling.Then:
* Accountability Partners: Through phone calls, video chat, messaging app groups, or other means, find accountability partners with whom you can check in regularly and who can help hold you accountable to the basics of recovery.Later:
* CTA Tools Group Ongoing: Join a CTA Ongoing Tools Group (a structured recovery activity in which members work in small teams to practice the CTA tools daily, support one another, and bring practical accountability and fellowship into the use of the tools).
* Sponsor: Get a sponsor.
* Steps: Work the Steps with your sponsor.
* MOTs: Participate in Meetings of Three (a tool in which two or more experienced members help a member get transparent around their trading results and trading behaviour in the light of the Steps and Traditions).

The Twelve Steps of Compulsive Traders AnonymousAs adapted from Alcoholics AnonymousThe Twelve Steps are outlined in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. They can be found at the beginning of the chapter “How It Works.” Essays on the Steps can be read in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.1. We admitted we were powerless over compulsive trading — that our lives had become unmanageable.2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive traders, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Traditions of Compulsive Traders AnonymousAs adapted from Alcoholics AnonymousThe Twelve Traditions provide guidelines for relationships between the groups, members, the global Fellowship and society at large. Questions of finance, public relations, donations and purpose are addressed in the Traditions. There is both a short form and a long form of the Traditions. The Traditions were first published in the April 1946 AA Grapevine under the title “Twelve Points to Assure Our Future.”Short Form
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon C.T.A. unity.2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.3. The only requirement for C.T.A. membership is a desire to stop compulsive trading.4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or C.T.A. as a whole.5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the compulsive trader who still suffers.6. A C.T.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the C.T.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.7. Every C.T.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.8. Compulsive Traders Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.9. C.T.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.10. Compulsive Traders Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the C.T.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities._
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_Long Form1. Each member of Compulsive Traders Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. C.T.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority–a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.3. Our membership ought to include all who suffer from compulsive trading. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought C.T.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three Compulsive Traders gathered together for trading sobriety may call themselves an C.T.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.4. With respect to its own affairs, each C.T.A. group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect C.T.A. as a whole without conferring with the Trustees of the General Service Board. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.5. Each Compulsive Traders Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose–that of carrying its message to the compulsive trader who still suffers.6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to C.T.A. should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. An C.T.A. group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to C.T.A., such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the C.T.A. name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, C.T.A. managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside C.T.A.- and medically supervised. While an C.T.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. An C.T.A. group can bind itself to no one.7. The C.T.A. groups themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of Compulsive Traders Anonymous is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those C.T.A. treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated C.T.A. purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.8. Compulsive Traders Anonymous should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling Compulsive Traders for fees or hire. But we may employ Compulsive Traders where they are going to perform those services for which we may otherwise have to engage nonCompulsive Traders. Such special services may be well recompensed. But our usual C.T.A. "12th Step" work is never to be paid for.9. Each C.T.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its secretary, the large group its rotating committee, and the groups of a large metropolitan area their central or intergroup committee, which often employs a full-time secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our C.T.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our C.T.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary C.T.A. contributions by which we maintain our C.T.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the C.T.A. Grapevine. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in C.T.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.10. No C.T.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate C.T.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues–particularly those of politics, trading reform, or sectarian religion. The Compulsive Traders Anonymous groups oppose no one. Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.11. Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think C.T.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as C.T.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.12. And finally, we of Compulsive Traders Anonymous believe that the principle of anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all.

PrayersThe Serenity Prayer
God, grant us the serenity
to accept the things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference.The Our Father
Our Father, Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
And deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.Third Step Prayer
God, I offer myself to Thee —
to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties,
that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help
of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!Seventh Step Prayer
My Creator, I am now willing that You should have all of me, good and bad.
I pray that You now remove from me every single defect of character
which stands in the way of my usefulness to You and my fellows.
Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do Your bidding.
Amen.Eleventh Step Prayer
Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace;
that where there is hatred, may I bring love;
that where there is wrong, may I bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, may I bring harmony;
that where there is error, may I bring truth;
that where there is doubt, may I bring faith;
that where there is despair, may I bring hope;
that where there are shadows, may I bring light;
that where there is sadness, may I bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.
Amen.Note on the closing lines of the Eleventh Step Prayer
These three lines are the spiritual logic of the prayer. They describe how the Kingdom of God actually operates, which is the opposite of ordinary human instinct.
* “It is by self-forgetting that one finds.” The more we obsessively focus on ourselves (our needs, our image, our wounds, our rights), the more lost and empty we become. When we stop making ourselves the center and turn outward in service and love, we actually discover who we are and what we were made for. Self-forgetting is not self-hatred; it is the release of self-preoccupation.
* “It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.” This is the same principle Jesus states in the Lord’s Prayer. Holding onto resentment and the demand that others pay for what they have done keeps us locked in the very bondage we want freedom from. When we forgive (release the debt), we open ourselves to receive the forgiveness God is already offering us. The two movements are linked.
* “It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.” This is the central Christian paradox. “Dying” here means the death of the false self — the ego that insists on control, self-protection, and its own will. Only when that false self is surrendered (dies) does the true life that God gives become possible. It is the same truth as “whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
In short, the three lines say that the way up is down, the way to receive is to give, and the way to live is to die to self. They are not poetic decoration; they are the operating principles of the spiritual life the rest of the prayer is asking for.

SlogansFirst Things First.
This Too Shall Pass.
Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes.
Live and Let Live.
Easy Does It.
One Day at a Time.
Think, Think, Think.
Let Go and Let God.
Progress Not Perfection.
F.E.A.R. — Forget Everything And Run
F.E.A.R. — Face Everything And Recover
P.A.U.S.E. — Postpone Action Until Spirit Enters“We stood at the turning point.
We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.”“Half measures availed us nothing.”
(How It Works, p. 59)-
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-On Self-KnowledgeFrom Bill’s Story (p. 17, 4th edition):
“Surely this was the answer—self-knowledge.
But it was not…”From “More About Alcoholism” (p. 39):
“But the actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. This is a point we wish to emphasize and re-emphasize, to smash home upon our alcoholic readers as it has been revealed to us out of bitter experience.”Later in the same chapter (Fred’s story, p. 42):
“I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots.”

The 9th Step PromisesTAKEN FROM P. 83 OF THE AA BIG BOOKThe spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it......We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. As God's people we stand on our feet; we don't crawl before anyone.If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity.
We will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.

LiteratureAA Big Book
AA Twelve and Twelve
DA 12 Steps Study Guide
DA 12 & 12 & 12Recommended Reading
“My Trading Bible” - Mark A. RitchieMark A. Ritchie is a veteran commodities trader and co-founder of Chicago Research and Trading (CRT), once the largest options firm in the industry. He is best known for his 1989 book, God in the Pits: Confessions of a Commodities Trader, which details his journey from a fundamentalist Christian background to Wall Street success.Ritchie grew up in Afghanistan, Texas, and Oregon, and was a theology student (M-Div, 1980) and night-shift prison guard before entering finance. His work explores the tension between his deep Christian faith and the high-stakes world of commodities trading, offering spiritual insights alongside his trading philosophy. He was also featured in Jack Schwager’s The New Market Wizards and authored My Trading Bible: Lose Your Shirt. Save Your Life. Keep Trading.