As much as we are told to leave stock trading to the professionals, it’s more easily said then done. Why do we play this market speculation game? For one, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype and want to join in on the returns of a great performing stock. Or we hear about people who struck it rich by getting lucky in a high-risk investment and our optimism and competitive spirit leads us to want a piece of the pie. Then there is just the general desire to try to speed up the wealth accumulation process and take things into our own hands.

Even though we know that most people do not beat the market, we often continue to try in hopes of higher than average returns. For many people, the speculative investment is inevitable and an uncontrollable desire. And you know what? Depending on where you are in your investment time horizon, taking these risks might even be a good thing.

If you’re the type that no matter what people recommend you continue to take some above-average investment risks in hopes for big gains, do yourself a favor and do the sensible thing. Don’t use more than five percent of your entire capital on speculative investing. This will protect you from going broke, but still allow you to enjoy the excitement of potentially making the right move and big gains.

If you are young with a long investment horizon, go ahead and risk it. Have fun, because it’s better gamble when you are younger than when you are older and should be preserving capital. You never know, you might actually make a nice profit and boost the amount of money you have to invest.

Millionaire Money Habit: Allow yourself to enjoy the thrills of market speculation, but don’t risk more than you can handle. Using more than five percent of your capital to speculate in the stock market is a fool’s game. The chances for you as an individual to win are against you.