If you go to Vegas and lose $20,000 on Saturday night playing blackjack, are you gambling? If you go to Vegas and win $20,000 on Saturday night playing balckjack, are you gambling?
The probability/statistics behind every game of chance on the casino floor is extremely well known. The casino has no problems being down millions of dollars to a big gambler... as long as they play the game (as designed) long enough, it's coming back to the casino.
Yes, and yes. I love Vegas... specifically, I love blackjack and craps. But I'm well aware of the difference between gambling and investing.
Okay Debaser, let's try this again. Gambling a trading have two different base platforms after you figure out what is going on. Sentiment. Sentiment is measured by volume and/ or volatility. There is no sentiment a roulette wheel. When you spin a balanced roulette wheel, the outcome is random. Not so in any market traded by humans. Sentiment is your key. Did I mention sentiment?
Take a quarter out of your pocket and flip it. Tell the kid that every time you flip the quarter and it comes up heads your will give him a dollar and a dime but when it comes up tails he must give you a dollar. Then tell him that those type of opportunities exist -- from time to time -- in markets for the astute observer to act on. If he does not see the difference between using money in that game and betting on the wheel take him back to the hospital and tell them he is simply too stupid to be yours.
You risk money in gas to drive to your job, which may or may not be there when you get there. As a consequence of this logic, every single thing we do that involves money is a gamble. Would agree with this?
Is running a casino different from gambling? Is being a profitable black jack card counter different from gambling? Is being a profitable trader for the last three years different from gambling? (And i dont mean a profitable trader who has just been buying dips in a bull run, nothing wrong with that but it might be luck we cant tell. What i mean is a trader who has been making 100s of small trades, both long and short in many different markets or stocks over at least a three year period, for more than three years is even better of course) All the three of the above are not gambling my opinion, very little luck is involved or required in any of the above (although luck does help) . They are all probability (and money management) games with a positive expectancy, they are not gambling. The only difference with trading and the first two is that you can never be sure if your edge is going to continue to work in the future, but as long as it does you can continue to say that you are not gambling.
There's no risk in paying money for which the purchase of gas was intended. The gas was purchased to get one to work. When you risk money on any uncertain outcome, it constitutes a gamble.