trading or gambling?

hi everyone,

how to differenciate "trading" and "Gambling"?
any different point of view to define it, more better..
so..how?

regards

I see trading very similiar to the game of poker. It's a form of gambling, but enough skill can offset the effects of luck and the player wouldn't always win, but would win consistently enough to net a profit in the end.

Hi,
Forex is gambling if you continue to "play the game" when you're not sure how to make a profit for yourself. This principle is true in any business. I have seen many people open a new business in my town that as I watched I was sure it wouldn't last. Sure enough it didn't because although they a good general concept, the business didn't have a way to consistently make a profit.

I would give myself about 6 months of learning forex methods (and loosing) before I would decide if it is just "a game" or the real deal.

Best wishes,

Trading can be gambling if you don't know what your doing.

Trading is a business, just like any other. Many businesses in to liquidation every day because of either market forces or they are not well run.

I tend to think of gambling in terms of roulette and trading in terms of poker.
In roulette, the house has a small but relentless edge which combined with the sheer randomness of the wheel and the emotional weakness of the players, consistently drains away the players money.It doesn't matter how experienced or clever you are. It will take your money.
In poker, good players learn 2 things which allows them to take the money from the poor(or inexperienced)players.
1.They rarely play with weak hands and bet up big on the very strong hands.
They bet up when the odds are in their favour - something a Roulette player can never do.
2.They learn to read the body language of their opponents. So they know when to fold and when to hold.
The wheel doesn't have body language.
When trading, you can learn to bet up when the odds are in your favour and by studying price action, you can become familiar with the body language of the other market participants.


Ken

everything can be gambling a guy from my town live a nice life playing online poker each night and he earn more than normal people here lolrevoke

This question remindes me of a favorite saying by W.C. Fields,

When asked by a 'newbie' about poker: 'Sir, is this a game of chance?'
W.C.'s classic reply: "Son, not the way I play it!"


Lou

Everything you do in life is a gamble. Every single aspect.

IMO, I think you have the wrong question... I think you meant to ask what the difference is between "trading, gambling and throwing your money away"?

When a gambler gambles, he still has a reasonable expectation of winning sometimes... obviously not if you buy a lottery ticket - but in a casino, for instance.

But there are many things you can do in FX where you are pretty much guaranteed to be parted with your money.

So a step up from this would be gambling.

Trading is just a type of gambling. You are placing a bet on the future outcome of some event.

The question is do you want to gamble with a statistical edge or just leave it to chance?(eg. flip a coin) This is where your trading system and money management come into play. If it's a solid system and you take profits and cut losses when appropriate, over a given number of trades you will be profitable.

So in my mind, successful traders are in fact gamblers who have an edge which they exploit to make money.

Cheers,

CFII

First of all, gambling is placing your money on something with lower expectation of winning then losing. Unfortunately there is no word for people who can place bet and actually have positive outcome more likely then loosing.
I presently and in the past placed bets on one particular sport. I know this sport pretty well but much more impotantly I have my own system( based purely on statistics). My outcome pretty much 95% succsess. I am placing bets and winning for quite a long time with consistency and also my system did not change even one bit over one year.
Now I thought Forex will be easier. Much to my surprise it is not! I am almost finish building my own strategy and now I'll have to test it in the reall acconunt and with a real money.
One thing I want you guys to get from my post- winning money on Forex is the same difficult as winning money on betting on sports. At least it is my own experience.

Ed Thorp, in his first visit in 1962 to Vegas took $11,000 out of the casinos in a 20 hour period. That would be about $70,000 in today's money and he started with a 10k bankroll. The game does not determine the gamble. The player does. I really do not see the difference and don't see why I should.

Gambling is buying a chance (usually very slim) to win. You have nothing to sell, you only buy. You can improve your odds by developing systems but the outcome is dependant wholly or in part on chance.

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Trading is buying and selling. How well you trade depends on your knowledge of the market you are trading in. Just as in any business, you need to know what sells, and for how much, in your trading area. You also need to take only calculated risks. Strong risk management and emergency planning are essential to keeping your business going.

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If you view Forex as gambling, then that’s what it is and you will lose, but you may get lucky.

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If you view Forex as a trading business and use strong risk management and emergency planning techniques you can consistently make profits, just like any trader that trades anything.

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Well that’s my $0.02

When you see trading forex as gambling that means one thing:

You have not a consistent winning strategy, that proofed profitability over a long time back and forward testing.

Hi Ravindre dsa,
When you are gambling you are going into a situation where the probability of the system you are using is going to give you less than 50-50 results and generally you are attached to the outcome which is what all good traders have gone through at some stage.
The best way is to trade after you are comfortable with your edge, you have worked out the ratio of wins to losses so that when you trade you know in the long term you will have more wins than losses. That way you are not emotionally attached to the outcome you just trade because it fun to trade, dont think about the money just go in and accept what the market brings you, whatever it gives you.
Go Getter
P.S treat it like a game because that is what it is and when you can do that the pips will start to flow cheers mate