so is gambling or not gambling an illusion?...is it what we say?....is there an absolute or does the dictionary decide? ES
173 pages ... and it comes down to ... if gambling is "taking a risk" then trading is gambling if its for fun/thrill then they are probably both financially losing propositions if its done with an edge, discipline, and management of thoughts, feelings and actions then its likely to be the professional version of either and can be long run profitable. IMO
Trading is similar to live sports betting , so it is gambling. Sports spread trading , futures trading , options trading , stock trading they are all different types of gambling.
A subjectivist might say that is "gambling" in the measure you feel so, according to your current state of "knowledge" specific to the phenomenon and according to the ratio uncertainty/capital. Lower state of such a "knowledge" and higher uncertainty will increase the variance of the outcome. Relatively smaller capital will make you less able to cope with higher uncertainty. Discussing in these terms is pretty recreative as anybody can say whatever thought pass through his mind. If you want to proceed in more scientific and rational terms, you should first create a (possibly simplified) model where you begin by defining your terms, your hypotheses and then you are more likely to make a service to a deeper understanding. "game", "gambling", "strategy" (are we using a strategy?, how we define it?), capital, space of price trajectories, market, etc. You must first have a basic definition of terms of the discussion. Here the general impression is that anyone is using a different version of various concepts. T
My friend alerted me that this is the 7th year of this particular thread. Anyone figure this out yet, LOL. Must be a record of some sort. Good luck guys, Don
Interestingly ES so did I but I voted differently back then to how I would now. I used to say it wasn't gambling but having understood poker gambling I now agree that it is gambling. In either are skill and discipline will always beat rookie attitudes and luck in the long run. The pro takes the money over time, just like the Casino. For the record: Casino's are gambling too. But like all pro's they do it primarily to make money; the fun is a peripheral benefit.
I was just reading this old entry from 2005, 7 years ago. Very interesting to observe the process that many of us seem to repeat as we go from newbie to experienced. Several months ago, as a complete newbie, I proposed the same idea as above, and was promptly torn to pieces by the responses.