Market is random. But in the long term if you analyze the underlying factors that affect the instruments that you want to trade, then you put the odds in your favor and more important, with a proper management you can say that you have a business wich is not based on luck. So, for me, trading is not gambling BUT market is random. And one think in particulary wich separate trading from gambling is that in trading you can have a very flexible management and you can use a trading plan, you can use scaling in/out wich for a trend trader is very important. And of course in gambling you can't do that. Bottom line, if you treat trading as a business then you are a trader, and if you don't treat it as a business, then you are a gambler. Sry for my writing mistakes but english is my second language. Have a nice day.
I'll give you a +1 for that but get ready for the same 4 guys to come on and regurgitate their same tired list of 6 "catchphrases" without bothering to cite any sources or provide any links to any of their baseless claims and misguided notions.
It's very interesting that we've had 40+ pages of debate over the precise meaning of the word "gambling", when as far as I can tell, it doesn't have a precise meaning. We have one group of posters who seem to be very concerned that we all use the broadest definition of the word, which encompasses all risk-taking, even though this renders the question of whether trading is gambling completely pointless. Then we have another group who seem to be personally insulted at the suggestion that trading might be considered gambling. They seem to be using the most pejorative connotation of the word in relation to the poll question. I only saw one post with the correct answer to the question, which is "Who gives a shit!"
My ass it is. There goes your whole argument out the window. Then why do you post in this thread? Obviously traders who didn't know they were gamblers do. The answer is really simple and was presented several times already. It is basicly a semantic/grammar question. Is X an Y? Is this newly discovered plant a fruit? (or might be a vegetable?) We just look at the characteristic/definition of fruit/gambling and if it fits, the answer is yes. End of story... P.S.: Is tomato a fruit? Most people would say it is a vegetable (me too), and by definition, they would be wrong: "Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry."
If you believe that trading is gambling, you can make money. If you believe that trading is not gambling, you can make money.
If it wasn't gambling it would have a much higher success rate. Are there edges where we can eliminate risk? of course, front running or inside info or even the super mcduper holy grail....since some do it better than others like capt. obvious said these guys stand out in consistency,,,, but most gurus have just been on the right side of the right trade at the right time....peace
If you read through the posts you'll see that was already tried... it all turns on how you define the word "chance" ... of course if you read the definition of "chance" you'll get your answer, but the skeptics already know everything there is to know in the world so I don't think they even bothered looking it up and reading it. Probably because they'd have to go back and edit all their previous posts and I think ET only gives you 30 minutes to do that... so they've boxed themselves into a corner and are being forced to defend their positions.
Couldn't resist posting. It's the most interesting thread on ET at the moment, but the arguments are getting a little repetitive. Now, I voted yes in the poll because that is the obvious logical answer given the dictionary definition. But the term "gambling" is not normally used with such a broad definition. Gambling is usually associated with some form of entertainment, where the negative expectancy is compensated for by the excitement of the gamble. The primary purpose of this type of gambling is entertainment. Trading doesn't fit this usage of the word so well since it's so mind-bogglingly boring. As for tomatoes. There's no frigging way that a tomato is a fruit and you're a clueless moron for even daring to suggest such a thing.