# Illusion of Control

*Behavioral Finance — Finicade finance glossary*

The illusion of control is overestimating your influence over outcomes determined largely by chance. It's why people prefer to choose their own lottery numbers and why active traders feel safer than index holders despite worse results. Trading interfaces intensify it deliberately: more buttons, more data and more frequent feedback all make randomness feel like a system responding to skill.

**Also known as:** control illusion, false sense of control

**Related terms:** [Overconfidence](https://finicade.com/glossary/overconfidence), [Day Trading](https://finicade.com/glossary/day-trading), [Self-Attribution Bias](https://finicade.com/glossary/self-attribution-bias), [Behavioral Biases](https://finicade.com/glossary/behavioral-biases), [Market Timing](https://finicade.com/glossary/market-timing)

Source: https://finicade.com/glossary/illusion-of-control