The market closes at 4. Does your mind?
Replaying the exit at dinner. Still at the screen long after the session should be over. Awake at 2 a.m. with the numbers. Thinking about markets is normal. When it’s costing you sleep, concentration, energy or relationships, it deserves a proper look.
You can make a change without wanting to quit.
Stopping isn’t the price of asking. Goals are worked out with you after an assessment, and if stepping back would help, you’d hear that plainly, with reasons.
Psychiatrist-led care with Dr. Khashayar Shariati, MD, FRCPC. Medical care, not coaching or investment advice.
Two ways to start
OHIP-covered psychiatric consultation and clinically indicated follow-up for eligible adults in Ontario. Referral from a physician or nurse practitioner is required. English or Farsi; virtual care where clinically appropriate.
Referring clinician? Fax 416-309-8726 · Referral information
The market closes at 4. Does your mind?
When it doesn’t stay in the market
The regular stock-market session ends at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, and other markets trade into the evening. For some people, the trading carries on anyway: replaying an exit at dinner, one more look before bed, lying awake with the numbers.
No position. No setup. Still watching.
For others, it’s the screen itself. The session should be over and there’s nothing left to do there, and it’s still hard to leave.
And for some, the trading has stopped, but a loss, a former account high or a missed move still sets the terms for everything else.
Thinking about markets is normal, and watching them can be part of the work. These experiences can deserve care when they are unwanted, hard to set aside, or costing sleep, concentration, energy or time with people, even when trading itself feels under control and even if you never trade again. Debt and practical consequences need practical help too; health care runs alongside it.
What it can cost, away from the account
- Sleep
- Checking before bed, waking to the numbers, nights that never quite end.
- Concentration
- Half there at work or at home, with part of your attention still on the market.
- Energy
- Running on empty, sometimes even after a good day.
- Relationships
- Strain with a partner. Arguments about time, money or the phone at dinner. Trades or losses kept quiet, and the shame and distance that can follow.
None of these by itself means something is wrong, and a good month doesn’t settle the question. If they’re happening and you’d like them not to be, that’s reason enough to ask.
You wrote the plan. Someone else took the trade.
When rules aren’t the whole answer
Same person, different state. Most trading rules are written the day after something went wrong, and many of them work. Sometimes, though, the list keeps growing while the same kind of day keeps returning: the re-entry right after a stop, the size that creeps up after a loss, the break that ends sooner than planned.
That can mean the strategy needs work. It can also involve things rules don’t reach: sleep, stress, mood, attention, alcohol or medications, or a pull in the minutes after a loss that feels different from an ordinary decision.
Ordinary biases can persist even when we understand them, so this isn’t about failing at discipline. It is about whether something else deserves a look.
Your coach asks about your entries. A psychiatrist asks about your sleep, concentration, energy, and relationships.
Different questions
A good coach can help with entries, stops and sizing. This service doesn’t do that work, and it doesn’t judge your strategy.
This is psychiatrist-led care. A psychiatric assessment asks how you’ve been sleeping, whether you can concentrate, how much energy is left at the end of the day and what’s happening at home and at work, along with mood, anxiety, alcohol, medications and stress. The answers can change what would help.
You can make a change without wanting to quit.
Stopping isn’t the price of asking
Some people want to stop. Some want trading to take up less of their life. Some have already stopped and want their sleep back. Nothing is decided in advance: you’ll hear what the assessment found, what the options are and why. A recommendation may not be the one you hoped for, but it will be explained, and it’s yours to weigh.
If stepping back would help, you’d hear that plainly, with reasons.
How care works here
Assessment and treatment are individualized, proportionate and evidence-informed. The main aims are less distress and better day-to-day functioning. A diagnosis can be useful, but it isn’t pursued for its own sake, and no medication, abstinence requirement or treatment pathway is decided in advance.
What matters is whether you’re sleeping, getting through work, present at dinner, less worn down by all of this. How much assessment and treatment that takes depends on you: your needs, your circumstances and what you’re hoping will change.
In practice
- You don’t have to call yourself addicted, or accept any other label, to ask.
- Stopping isn’t assumed, and neither is carrying on. Goals are worked out with you after the assessment.
- Medication is an option when it’s clinically indicated, not the automatic next step. There is no set number of visits and no fixed pathway.
- Mood, anxiety, sleep, attention, behavioral patterns, medications and what’s happening in your life are all part of the picture.
- A diagnosis is discussed when it’s clinically appropriate and useful. It’s there to guide care, not to define you.
- If another treatment or service would help more, referral to it is part of the care.
Care here draws on established clinical evidence, applied with judgment to trading-related difficulties. Research in this area is still developing, and this service isn’t a proven treatment of its own.
What this service offers
An individualized psychiatric assessment of the trading pattern, its effect on daily life, related mental-health symptoms and the wider circumstances, followed by care that fits what is found.
Care may focus on difficulty stepping away from markets, managing distress and restoring attention to everyday life. Depending on the assessment, options may include:
- brief, individually selected psychotherapy strategies
- treatment of an associated condition, such as depression, anxiety or attention difficulties
- clinically indicated follow-up
- referral to another service, such as longer-term psychotherapy
The focus is mental health and everyday functioning. It is psychiatric care, not investment advice, trading coaching or financial recovery.
Who it may suit
People seek help for different reasons. These may include:
- repeated difficulty keeping intended limits on trading
- market checking, screen-watching or thinking that is hard to step away from and crowds out sleep, work or relationships
- distress associated with trading or losses, including after stopping
- trading alongside concerns about mood, anxiety, attention or substance use
Whether or not someone is profitable does not settle the question. A financial loss, frequent trading or an interest in markets does not by itself establish a psychiatric disorder. You do not need to identify as an addict, agree on a diagnosis or commit to a particular treatment goal before discussing your concerns with a health professional.
What the assessment involves
The consultation explores what happens, what you have already tried and what you would like to change, along with sleep, mood, anxiety, attention, alcohol and other substances, medications and stress. The aim is to understand the difficulties, assess associated conditions and agree on appropriate next steps.
It does not judge your strategy or give investment advice. Treatment goals are set with you after the assessment and may or may not include continuing to trade. Treatment is individual and does not necessarily mean medication.
Three questions worth asking yourself
Not a test, and not a way of sorting people into two groups. There is no score. These questions are for thinking, not for diagnosis.
- Does knowing about the pattern change it?
- Does its effect stay in the account, or spill into sleep, work and relationships?
- Is it what you want, or have you repeatedly decided to cut back or stop and not managed to?
A worrying answer to any of them is a reasonable thing to raise with a doctor.
Who helps with what
Different parts of a trading-related problem may need different kinds of help, often side by side.
- Debt, missed payments or a proposal
- A non-profit credit counsellor or a Licensed Insolvency Trustee
- A long-term plan for your money
- A qualified financial planner
- Tax consequences of losses
- A tax professional
- Talking therapy for the pattern, stress or mood
- A psychologist or registered psychotherapist, often through workplace benefits or private payment, or publicly funded options through your doctor or ConnexOntario (1-866-531-2600, free, 24/7)
- A medical assessment of the pattern alongside sleep, mood, anxiety, attention, substances and medications
- Your family doctor or nurse practitioner, who can refer to a psychiatrist
Psychiatric care does not replace financial help and does not recover losses.
How psychiatric referral works
There are two ways to start. Either way, a physician or nurse practitioner decides whether a psychiatric referral is right for you.
If you have a family doctor or nurse practitioner
- Speak with your family physician, another treating physician or nurse practitioner. Describe what has been happening, how long it has been happening and its effect on your health or daily life. You can show them this page.
- Ask whether psychiatric assessment is appropriate. If so, ask them to refer you to Dr. Khashayar Shariati (Psychiatry) for trading-related difficulties. They fax the referral to 416-309-8726.
- The clinic reviews the referral for suitability and contacts you through its usual booking process. The next step and any follow-up depend on clinical need.
A sentence you can use
“I would like to discuss my trading and how it is affecting my mental health or daily life. Would a psychiatric assessment be appropriate?”
If you don’t have one, or can’t easily reach one
You can see a physician or nurse practitioner at a walk-in or virtual-care clinic and talk with them about what has been happening and whether a psychiatric referral is appropriate. If it is, they fax the referral to 416-309-8726.
A referral isn’t automatic; it’s that clinician’s own decision. General questions about the referral process: 416-309-8725. Calling doesn’t create a referral or an appointment, and you don’t need to share health details on the phone.
Referral in brief
- Talk with your family physician, another treating physician or a nurse practitioner about how trading is affecting you.
- If psychiatric assessment is appropriate, they send a referral to Dr. Khashayar Shariati.
Referral fax
416-309-8726
Please keep your health information private. Do not send medical history, trading statements or other sensitive details by email, social-media message or public comment. Your referring clinician sends the information needed.
If you’re worried about someone
What you notice matters, even if you can’t name it. Changes in sleep, mood and presence are worth taking seriously, even without seeing the account.
You don’t have to diagnose, supervise accounts or fund another try. Talking about effects (“you’re sleeping badly and you seem far away at dinner”) usually goes better than arguing about trades.
The person trading needs their own referral from their physician or nurse practitioner. Your own doctor can support you too.
For referring clinicians
Please refer adults in Ontario when trading-related difficulties involve significant distress or functional impairment, or when psychiatric assessment would help clarify the clinical picture. The pathway is an OHIP-covered consultation and clinically indicated follow-up for eligible patients, through an ordinary physician or nurse practitioner referral.
Fax referrals to 416-309-8726
Attention: Dr. Khashayar Shariati, MD, FRCPC (Psychiatry): trading-related difficulties
Relevant presentations
- repeated difficulty adhering to intended limits on trading, or recurrent re-entry despite efforts to stop
- persistent market preoccupation or checking that is difficult to disengage from
- trading-related emotional distress, sleep disturbance, or disruption of work, relationships or everyday functioning
- a question about mood, anxiety, attention, substance use or another psychiatric concern alongside the trading pattern
A settled diagnosis or commitment to abstinence is not required before referral.
Please include
- patient name, date of birth, Ontario health card number with version code, and current phone number
- the clinical question, presenting concerns and functional effects
- relevant psychiatric and medical history, current medications and care
- current risk or urgency information
- your name, billing number and fax number for the consultation report
Clinical approach
Assessment explores the trading pattern, associated symptoms, functional effects and competing explanations. Care is individualized and may include brief tailored psychotherapy strategies, treatment of indicated psychiatric conditions, follow-up or onward referral. The clinical focus is mental health and functioning, rather than investment advice or certification to resume trading.
This is a routine pathway. Do not delay an urgent assessment while awaiting this referral; use emergency services or your local urgent pathway.
Psychologists, psychotherapists and other professionals may share this information with a patient’s treating physician or nurse practitioner; this does not replace the required medical referral.
Questions about referral: 416-309-8725. Please do not email patient information.
Common questions
Is this covered by OHIP?
The pathway is an OHIP-covered psychiatric consultation and clinically indicated follow-up for eligible patients. The clinic confirms suitability, eligibility and appointment arrangements. Trading & Mental Health is a service name rather than a fixed psychotherapy course; treatment and follow-up depend on the assessment.
Do I need to stop trading before being assessed?
A commitment to abstinence is not required before asking about assessment. Recommendations and treatment goals follow an individual clinical assessment.
Will I be given a diagnosis or put on medication?
Not automatically. A diagnosis is discussed when it’s clinically appropriate and useful, and treatment options, which may or may not include medication, are worked out with you after the assessment.
I have already stopped trading. Can I still ask about assessment?
Yes. Distress, preoccupation or sleep problems can continue after trading stops, and they can be assessed whether or not you trade now.
I don’t have a family doctor, or I can’t get a referral. Can I still ask?
Yes. A physician or nurse practitioner at a walk-in or virtual-care clinic can talk with you about whether a psychiatric referral is appropriate, and can send one if it is. A referral isn’t automatic. See what to do without a regular clinician.
Can a therapist or family member refer me?
They can help you discuss the concern and seek appropriate care. A physician or nurse practitioner referral is required for this consultation pathway.
Can I send my story or trading statements by email?
Please do not send medical history, account statements or other sensitive information by ordinary email or social-media message. Public comments are not a route for assessment. Your physician or nurse practitioner sends the referral.
Mostly I want to stop breaking my rules so I can trade better. Is that a reason to ask?
It’s a fine place for the conversation to start. The assessment doesn’t aim at better returns. It looks at what’s behind the pattern and what it’s costing you. Whether continuing to trade makes sense is part of that conversation and isn’t assumed either way.
I tried therapy or a support group and it didn’t fit. Is it worth asking again?
That’s useful to say at the start: what you tried, what helped and what was missing. A poor fit doesn’t mean nothing can help. If another service would suit you better, referral to it is part of the care.
Will I have to explain trading from scratch?
Describe it in your own words, jargon included. The assessment covers the trading itself as well as sleep, mood and stress. It doesn’t judge your strategy, and understanding how a trade works doesn’t mean assuming the trading is fine.
Does this service help recover trading losses or improve trading?
No. The focus is psychiatric assessment and care, not investment decisions, trading performance or financial recovery.
About the practice
Dr. Khashayar Shariati, MD, FRCPC, Psychiatry, provides assessment for adults in Ontario. Appointments can be conducted in English or Farsi. Virtual care is available where clinically appropriate; some situations require in-person care.
Contact
- Referral fax
- 416-309-8726
- Phone
- 416-309-8725
- psy@kshariati.com (general questions only, no health information)