Risks mount for stressed traders as markets gyrate

By Michael Taylor

LONDON (Reuters) - Increased volatility grips stock markets, big investment banks tot up losses from a credit market seizure and jobs are slashed -- being a trader has seldom been more stressful.

Since a stock market bull run came to a grinding halt last year and as the crisis has magnified by the week, occupational psychologists who help stressed-out traders and bankers now fear a higher cost than mere write-downs: suicide.

"There is a great sense of urgency and anxiety around the City since the onset of the credit crunch and the economic problems unfolding," said Michael Sinclair, a consultant psychologist who has two London practices including one in the financial district, and estimates City workers account for 95 percent of his clients.

Even as hopes build that the worst may be over, professional investors fear the markets' seizure carries real dangers that have not been seen for decades -- perhaps as far back as the Great Depression triggered by the 1929 Wall Street crash.

Where Canary Wharf's imposing concrete towers and loud bars usually exude confidence and wealth, now the mood is claustrophobic. On commuter trains, workers openly speculate about which team members will be culled.

"People are unable to jump ship as their usual coping mechanism," said Sinclair. "A lot of underlying insecurities come to the surface, around self-esteem and self worth, and -- yes -- there has been an increase in suicides."

No up-to-date statistics are available for occupation-specific suicides in the United Kingdom and according to the Office for National Statistics, suicides have been fairly stable at about 1 percent of adult deaths in 2006.

But on anecdotal evidence, psychologists paint a darker picture, saying the recent surge in financial sector employees' stress is only the culmination of years living on the edge.