I really don't feel like taking this thread too much further because talking to some of you traders is worse than talking to a brick wall. I don't care that you don't think you're gambling, you are and you're an idiot for not thinking so. Every single transaction on this planet that DOES NOT have a guaranteed outcome is in one way shape or form gambling. You can sit there and tag all kinds of names and attachments to it, call it a "business transaction" call it speculation, trading, logical guessing, or any other connotation you want, but its not going to change what is going on. If I go to the store and buy a sandwich for $5 dollars, I know that I spent $5 dollars and I got my sandwich. That is guaranteed. If my friend says to me, hey buy this baseball card because next year it will be worth more next year, that's gambling. YOU seem to think that if you are right on a consistent basis or that you're making money on it readily easy that you are not gambling. Just because it's easy doesn't mean you're not gambling. If I buy that baseball card and then next year no one cares about baseball, I can't sell it for anything and I lost money. You're thinking "well thats not going to happen so it's not gambling" Obviously the LIKELIHOOD of that happening is extremely low, but there is absolutely NO GUARANTEE to the forseeable and unforseeable future that it may or may not happen, so it is a gamble. You are just hoping that it will be that simple. Real estate investment= GAMBLE if you dont think so, you are the biggest moron of all and I hope I can meet you to urinate on you because you're ignorance is appauling. Just because there is a large time frame on real estate and for the most part you are able to buy a property at a certain price and at a future date sell it higher with minimal risk to yourself and benefits in the interim such as tax breaks, leverage etc does not mean you're not gambling, it means you believe you are taking less risk than you would in another situation. But unless you were born yesterday REAL ESTATE GOT FUCKED. now because of real estate morons (which i would not be surprised if you are one of) the economy is in a bind. A trader is a gambler. A SKILLED trader is a gambler who can spot an edge better than a novice trader or a regular joe. An EXPERT trader takes it a step further from a skilled trader and introduces further enhancement, such as larger buying power to be able to manipulate stocks, faster trading systems, other traders that can help with knowledge/research, capital to find information. They all try to have an edge to REDUCE the variables and lower their risk exposure, but they too, just like any and everyone else are prone to being wrong and being on the losing end of trades and losing money. So they are skilled and they trade often and overall they are profitable for the year, but it all came at a certain risk to capital and WAS NOT GUARANTEED, they gambled. They have an edge and they use it. A person who goes to the casino and plays blackjack gambles. If they sit at a blackjack table for 9 hours and play through 45 shoes and 300 or so hands and overall go home with a profit, does that mean that they didn't gamble? If they can do that throughout the year and at the end of the year be positive are they all of a sudden not gamblers anymore? A regular blackjack player gambles. A blackjack player who has basic strategy memorized and now has an edge takes less risk. A blackjack player who knows basic strategy and counts cards takes even less risk and is able to play better and make more money. BUT THEY ARE ALL STILL GAMBLING! No if ands or buts about it. If you want to continue with the whole "im not a gambler" routine that's ok but you will always be a moron. Just as much as Earth is known as a planet, you will be known as a moron.
PS I in absolutely no way believe there are EXPERT traders. it was just for an example. Take it deep.
Wots with all this talk of morons and gambling? I'm not a gambler, and the reason i'm not a gambler is because i don't view trading as one trade....like you do. Your view is moronic, in your view 'everything' is a gamble, which may be so up to a certain point, but you are reasoning at a non-logical or realistic level. Is your wife on the pill, do you use air travel to go on holiday, do you drive a car,.....do you hide under your bed each day in fear of the biggest gamble....life? Dackster.
As I said earlier, you are one of the people in denial. It's ok, you can view it that way, but that doesn't make it any different. The world was flat until someone figured out it was round. You'll wake up sooner or later, probably on the ass end of a trade that you thought you had a great grasp on and were wrong. I do not live in 'fear' in my life, its just fact. I could get on a plane and crash. I could pick my nose and get a nosebleed, I can buy aapl at 50 and sell it at 60. They can all happen. They can not happen also. That is chance. It doesn't mean that I'm going to drastically change my life, but I am not naive enough to sit around with a chip on my shoulder thinking that those things don't happen. I never mentioned trading as a single trade, I even explained it in a larger scale, but it doesn't change the fact that you are taking a chance with an unexpected result. So call it what you want to make yourself feel better about it or get your little card laminated and tell all the little girls out there at the bar that you are a Professional Trader and whatever other horseshit you want to spill but you spend time in front of a computer buying and selling letters and numbers all day in order to have more money than you had before you started. There are professional poker players out there who also consider poker not gambling, do you believe them too? There are very skilled players who almost seem like they KNOW the cards, and they may be right a large majority of the time which turns out to make them a lot of money. But there is still the chance that they are wrong on a hand or pot or tournament and they lose. They gamble, no matter how skilled or increased edge they have. Say what you want, think what you want but I haven't seen any logic or fact that can disprove trading is gambling. Apparently some of you feel it's an 'opinion' or choice to call it gambling. Call it what you want. If you're a real trader you know how the game is and you know you're taking a risk no matter how calculated it is and you know that you're gambling. You go skydiving-you gamble with your life. Is it fun? ABSOLUTELY! is it likely that you will die? of course not. CAN it happen? yes. If XYZ has reported year over year growth over 20% and earnings are reporting AMC and you trade the stock because you see everyone buying it up and you cover .50 higher and made a nice profit mean you didn't just gamble? Oh I'm sorry, you made an educated trade somehow KNOWING the stock would push higher. You KNEW it would go higher. Well if you believe that, then I guess you can start guaranteeing me stock picks going higher? Tell me now, I would love to start having guarantees in the stock market.
Thanks for the insults! I still don't see trading being mentioned as a gambling activity, so far it is a conviction of some posters, please submit link to where it states that trading is gambling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambling Do you see trading activities there? If you live end result of your trading to chance, then you are gambling for sure. As an example how about this, go Long SPY no margin & place stop at 0, please let me know when you get stopped out, TY!
you place bets on an uncertain outcome...yes it is. Are the MIT card counters that beat vegas in black jack gamblers? or professional traders?..they had an edge, and money management skills, but they still made bets based on probability who care anyway?
You are very naive, SCI new york. You go ahead and cope with life in your own little way. Goodluck. Dackster.
haha This thread has now become good comedy. This can go on and on forever. You think you don't gamble. I know you do. You think I am naive, but you're the one in denial. I really don't care. If it makes you feel better then you go ahead and think about it however you want. It doesn't change anything outside of your opinion. You think steve cohen doesn't gamble when he trades just because he happens to be correct often? Trades go bad, its a risk you take. Risk vs reward. If I rob a bank for 20 million dollars, there is a high risk that I will get caught, but there is also a chance that I do not. If I don't, I get 20 million. You're gambling with your life. You want to justify trading as not gambling go ahead, but you can't prove that it's not. Just because it's sanctioned by the SEC and regulators doesn't make it any less so. But as I said earlier, it's like talking to a brick wall. I will tell you that trading is gambling, and you'll throw out some gibberish about how it's not. Keep telling yourself that, I won't lose sleep over it.