FAQ Is Trading the Same as Gambling?

[NVP]

What's the difference? If it brings profit, why would I care about the exact definition?

don't worry about it .........

 

[zaysev36]

don't worry about it .........

Well, it seems like you have something to say about it

 

[Bessithomfor1984]

Well both the gambling and trading are zero sum game (in order you to win someone else must lose) and also they are not productive for the society. It doesn't matter how good trader you are - you are not producing anything, just money switch hands in your direction more than the other way.

 

[JimTatus]

The real fact in Trading

Hi everyone,

When you look at every website and you can see the result how much winners are there in Forex trading. You get only 5 to 10% winners as a answer.

In my opinion, That's right.

When I started trading in Forex, James Bond movie Casino Royale came into my mind. Is the Forex trading like that gambling perfomed in that movie?
Later I realised, It is not true.

But you can increase that overall success rate from 10% to more. How is it possible?

One thing you must know before you start trade in forex.

Tell me, how a person manage his/her business or trade? The one way is to get knowledge through academics like M.B.A degree and the next thing is he has some experience before to start trade or we can say like that he/she should know every aspects in trading.

Before start trading he/she must know the each and everypoint what is happening in trading.

Many people think that the income from my job is not enough for me, I want to earn more. So I decided to trade in forex. That's great idea.

I just say this is great idea not perfect action. The main thing is that you have convert this idea into winning action. That's what I tell. You have to ask yourself what I am doing/learning to win trades.

Many business need capital, manpower, marketing, advertisement and many other things to win. But in Forex or stock exchange to win you need not the above mentioned criterias but learning. Yeah you need capital, but other worries are not there. It gives you the opportunity to trade only with the capital. This trading needs your time to study. You keep study and apply different strategies as every owner of the world's best companies.

Hardwork only gives success. Everyone knows this. So spend your time and little amount of money to learn trade. It avoids huge loss. You must keep this thing your in your mind. "This is my money. I am not going to loose anymore". The money you are going to invest. How much difficulties do you face to earn the money to invest?

Learn every techniques. Do trade in demo accounts. When you get satisfaction on your own, then think trading.

You are the boss of this business. Take the ownership. Success or failure, It affects you.

You will become one of the success person in forex trading and any other trading.

 

[DavyBFX]

Hi everyone,

When you look at every website and you can see the result how much winners are there in Forex trading. You get only 5 to 10% winners as a answer.

In my opinion, That's right.

When I started trading in Forex, James Bond movie Casino Royale came into my mind. Is the Forex trading like that gambling perfomed in that movie?
Later I realised, It is not true.

But you can increase that overall success rate from 10% to more. How is it possible?

One thing you must know before you start trade in forex.

Tell me, how a person manage his/her business or trade? The one way is to get knowledge through academics like M.B.A degree and the next thing is he has some experience before to start trade or we can say like that he/she should know every aspects in trading.

Before start trading he/she must know the each and everypoint what is happening in trading.

Many people think that the income from my job is not enough for me, I want to earn more. So I decided to trade in forex. That's great idea.

I just say this is great idea not perfect action. The main thing is that you have convert this idea into winning action. That's what I tell. You have to ask yourself what I am doing/learning to win trades.

Many business need capital, manpower, marketing, advertisement and many other things to win. But in Forex or stock exchange to win you need not the above mentioned criterias but learning. Yeah you need capital, but other worries are not there. It gives you the opportunity to trade only with the capital. This trading needs your time to study. You keep study and apply different strategies as every owner of the world's best companies.

Hardwork only gives success. Everyone knows this. So spend your time and little amount of money to learn trade. It avoids huge loss. You must keep this thing your in your mind. "This is my money. I am not going to loose anymore". The money you are going to invest. How much difficulties do you face to earn the money to invest?

Learn every techniques. Do trade in demo accounts. When you get satisfaction on your own, then think trading.

You are the boss of this business. Take the ownership. Success or failure, It affects you.

You will become one of the success person in forex trading and any other trading.

Nice summary. Well put.

 

[SweetAnalyst]

Hi everyone,

When you look at every website and you can see the result how much winners are there in Forex trading. You get only 5 to 10% winners as a answer.

In my opinion, That's right.

When I started trading in Forex, James Bond movie Casino Royale came into my mind. Is the Forex trading like that gambling perfomed in that movie?
Later I realised, It is not true.

But you can increase that overall success rate from 10% to more. How is it possible?

One thing you must know before you start trade in forex.

Tell me, how a person manage his/her business or trade? The one way is to get knowledge through academics like M.B.A degree and the next thing is he has some experience before to start trade or we can say like that he/she should know every aspects in trading.

Before start trading he/she must know the each and everypoint what is happening in trading.

Many people think that the income from my job is not enough for me, I want to earn more. So I decided to trade in forex. That's great idea.

I just say this is great idea not perfect action. The main thing is that you have convert this idea into winning action. That's what I tell. You have to ask yourself what I am doing/learning to win trades.

Many business need capital, manpower, marketing, advertisement and many other things to win. But in Forex or stock exchange to win you need not the above mentioned criterias but learning. Yeah you need capital, but other worries are not there. It gives you the opportunity to trade only with the capital. This trading needs your time to study. You keep study and apply different strategies as every owner of the world's best companies.

Hardwork only gives success. Everyone knows this. So spend your time and little amount of money to learn trade. It avoids huge loss. You must keep this thing your in your mind. "This is my money. I am not going to loose anymore". The money you are going to invest. How much difficulties do you face to earn the money to invest?

Learn every techniques. Do trade in demo accounts. When you get satisfaction on your own, then think trading.

You are the boss of this business. Take the ownership. Success or failure, It affects you.

You will become one of the success person in forex trading and any other trading.

This is quite an eye opener especially for those who are starting and new in trading. But, we should try to consider that this kind of business really needs to take risks, and maybe that would be the basis of how this thread was started. Its making it look like a gambling.

 

[defbtwoon]

I think they are different. To me gambling is like risking the money you are going to bet for a positive outcome. Trading on other hand is unpredictable and more on strategy focus and discipline.

 

[hewhodareswins]

A guy once said to me that he's gonna "invest" ten grand in Vodafone shares. I told him that what he was actually doing is saying "I bet ten grand that Vodafone goes up".

Trading is gambling. Full Stop.
Doesn't mean it's a bad thing however, I make a great living "gambling"

 

[foroom lluzers]

SHORT ANSWER

The very short answer . . .
Maybe yes, maybe no; it very much depends on your definition of gambling and whether or not you have an 'edge'.

The official view
The definition of ‘gamble’ in the Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition, revised) is:
Verb [no obj.]
1. play games of chance for money; bet: he gambles on football.
[with obj.] bet (a sum of money): they gambled their money on cards.
2. take risky action in the hope of a desired result: he was gambling on the success of his satellite TV channel.
Noun [usu. in sing.]
1. an act of gambling.
2. a risky action undertaken with the hope of success: we decided to take a gamble and offer him a place on our staff.

Clearly, according to the dictionary, any kind of trading or speculation in the financial markets most definitely is gambling. No ifs, no buts. However, based on this broad definition, walking down a flight of stairs or crossing a road could also be thought of as gambling. In fact, one could argue that living is gambling, as a great deal of our daily lives involves taking some ‘risky action in the hope of a desired result’.

Two extremes
At one extreme, many people would not consider crossing a road as gambling. Most of us achieve the desired result – i.e. reaching the other side – safely, every time. However, it involves some risk and a few unfortunate souls have accidents, sometimes fatal ones. At the other extreme, most people would consider betting on the result of the 3.30pm at Chepstow as gambling, as the desired result of your horse winning the race can’t be achieved with any degree of certainty. So, this begs two questions. Firstly, where is the dividing line between ‘not gambling’ when crossing the road and ‘gambling’ when betting on the gee-gees? Secondly, and more importantly, which side of this dividing line does trading fall on and why? These questions - and more - will be addressed in the Long Answer . . .

This is rubbish when you look at statistics.

timsk"walking down a flight of stairs or crossing a road could also be thought of as gambling".HOW MANY PEOPLE IN % DIE OR FALL IN DOING THESE ACTIVITIES?.

Trading is gambling , you are betting on price going up (black in casino) or red in a casino (going down).

This is like betting on the form of horses.Search on google "betting on the form of trend of horses".

 

[Dn1977]

I can only talk for forex as this is my experience. Trading is gambling when you have no plan or method. This is usually the case for beginners or even experienced traders that are have having a punt. But,trading is definitly NOT gambling when you have many years of experience and you plan all the trades you take. It then falls into calculated risk.

 

[foroom lluzers]

I can only talk for forex as this is my experience. Trading is gambling when you have no plan or method. This is usually the case for beginners or even experienced traders that are have having a punt. But,trading is definitly NOT gambling when you have many years of experience and you plan all the trades you take. It then falls into calculated risk.

You start with 50/50 , deduct spread of broker , this brings edge to -2 , equals 49/51 in favour of forex casino operators.

When you trade without an edge it is gambling .If you searcg google , with following words , 95% of traders lose , the statistics confirm that it is gambling.

The calculated risks are :traders make mistakes and underperform , aa traders can not execute the 49% , so they underperform on real accounts , they have no edge , so it is gambling.

 

[Dn1977]

Yeh I agree. The 95% who fail are probably gambling. If and when you get an edge and into the 5% .

 

[piphoe]

You start with 50/50 , deduct spread of broker , this brings edge to -2 , equals 49/51 in favour of forex casino operators.

When you trade without an edge it is gambling .If you searcg google , with following words , 95% of traders lose , the statistics confirm that it is gambling.

The calculated risks are :traders make mistakes and underperform , aa traders can not execute the 49% , so they underperform on real accounts , they have no edge , so it is gambling.

In the sense that you are using "gambling" yes I agree.

 

[888dan]

in so far as each trade goes it is a gamble. hence judging trades in isolation is fruitless, however in a portfolio context, trading a spread on fundamental value with the ability to hold your winners and losers (having a big enough book) summed up over thousands of trades will be net positive ev if the fundamental relationship of the spread you are trading holds.

now considering keeping cash is just being long your local currency, not trading, as a one off trade decision is a gamble too. trading with a portfolio approach or not trading at all, which looks like the bigger gamble?

 

[tomorton]

Trading is gambling as almost everything in life is gambling; i.e. almost everything has an uncertain outcome. Life itself included.

The outcome of most activities in life can be modified by the application of skills / knowledge. But their outcome remains less than 100% certain.

The outcome of some activities cannot be modified by skills / knowledge, e.g. lottery, roulette.

Its a futile and never-ending argument whether trading is gambling or isn't gambling. Like most things, it both is and isn't.

But the fatal conclusion a newly successful trader can reach is "I am profitable, therefore I am not gambling, therefore there is no risk".

 

[Windlesham1]

A gamble is something over which you have no control. Poker players understand probability as do options traders. Most directional trading is not managed and it is hard to quantify trailing stops etc.
But a shopkeeper is a gambler, a publican is a gambler as these are high risk businesses. Being a private landlord? You can lose a year's profits with one bad tenant-seen it so many times. So most trading is gambling as you have no control- with options you DO have an element of control. Trading forex is mostly a forlorn hope, I've never met a successful forex trader whose sole income was from forex.

 

[foroom lluzers]

A gamble is something over which you have no control. Poker players understand probability as do options traders. Most directional trading is not managed and it is hard to quantify trailing stops etc.
But a shopkeeper is a gambler, a publican is a gambler as these are high risk businesses. Being a private landlord? You can lose a year's profits with one bad tenant-seen it so many times. So most trading is gambling as you have no control- with options you DO have an element of control. Trading forex is mostly a forlorn hope, I've never met a successful forex trader whose sole income was from forex.

Options is gambling with time and probabilities.

Most of the forex trading is pure gambling on a forex roulette wheel.

Only serious trading is ,if you trade like Warren buffet .

 

[greg.darren]

trading is taken as gambling when you do not know what to do. Trading based on luck is like taking a shot in the dark and results are often similar as of gamblers. But with a well followed trading plan and proper risk management, trading is like a business. That’s the difference between those big percent of traders losing to some small percent of professional traders.

 

[hedgedequity]

It totally depends on an individual’s definition of “gambling”, it may be a “yes” or a “no”. As per the Oxford Dictionary “gamble(as a verb)” is “to play games of chance for money or bet” and “take risky action in the hope of a desired result”.

So if we go by the definition of the Oxford dictionary we may conclude that any kind of trading or speculation in the financial markets most definitely is gambling where there are no chances of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’.

 

[Quantt]

The major difference is the odds are in your favor in trading (if you trade with an edge to make money), compared to the odds are in the bookies favor in case of gambling or if you trade with no edge in the market...