I am sure that Bright Trading, having its home base in Las Vegas, feels the same way about the negative connotation. It's NOT GAMBLING! The ratio of people who try to day trade as a profession and becoming winners in the long run compared to ending up losers is in the long run is nothing like gambling statics of winners versus losers....at least with gambling you might get lucky.
Trading IS gambling in my opinion, but the main difference is that i'm the house. When I step up to the table I have the odds in my favor not the other way around. I can lose money like it is nobody's business in Vegas, but to me it is usually blind luck that determines my outcome. Making money (or Losing money) trading is rarely blind luck. I always make sure the odds are in my favor before I put my money on the line.
The assumption being that this speculator is a professional who is an expert in risk management and is sufficiently capitalized to suffer the potential consequences of this risk. Most small gamblers/traders aren't falling into that category - hence the societal implications and the PDT. In a pareto-efficient equilibrium, the risk shoud be transferred to those who are best suited to bear it (i.e. are large and diversified enough). Small speculators aren't. The quote you are giving is absolutely correct.
... if your marriage is pre-arranged and you never got a chance to find out who the person is Otherwise, I think that if approached seriously, it can be like Warren Buffet's investments - do research, go sample some merchandise that the company produces... If you like it - buy it Except that there are no potential diversification effects... ...unless one diversifies across time via a divorce/re-marriage routine. Or unless one moves to middle east
... that's if you are into scalping or short term swings. I think that both in trading and with the opposite sex the real gains come with a longer outlook... Ideally some would like to have (a) long term investment(s) and do some daytrading on the side ha? That may interfere with the performance of the buy-n-hold strategy though.