Is trading Forex immoral??

As we all have agreed trading is in one form or another gambling. I like to think of forex as a business and in business we can make many gambles or educated decisions. The more knowledgeable you are at something the less of a gamble it is. I have heard many people liken forex to playing poker. And in many ways I agree but here is where I have a problem. In poker when you win or become successful others have to lose because you are taking their money. While you don't ever force them to do anything and they volunteer to play the game many people believe that to be immoral. To succeed at someone else's expense. The same can be applied to forex trading, when I have a winning trade someone else has to be on the other end having a losing trade. Right? But is that the same thing. I tend to believe the two are very different but maybe it is because I want to believe that. I would love to hear everyone's take on it.

The same could be said about any business though, you profit off someone. The only difference is with most other businesses you are providing them with a service for a profit. Perhaps the service in forex is more of an emotional service, helping learn to live with loss.

I'm off a thought, you can gain something from just about anything. Even the awful things that have happened in my life have taught me valuable lessons. Often far more valuable to me then money.

its funny how many commodity traders dont even realize their purpose in the world....

do you know why good traders are so handsomely rewarded? i mean, exactly what service are they doing to make all that money??

answer: PROVIDE LIQUIDITY

the commodity markets exist so that businesses/governments/individuals can hedge. that is why the commodity markets started, and why they continue to operate. if there were no traders (aka speculators) these poor hedgers would have nobody on the other site of their trade. so this is our purpose, this is our service to the world >>> to provide liquidity to hedgers. the commodity markets are not made for traders, they are made for hedgers, the traders are just the grease that makes the market work.

so is trading immoral? well, if helping the world go round is immoral, call me a sinner!

Well said, Merlin.

I agree with Merlin in that commodity trading allows the farmer to know what price he can get for his crop when it is cultivated in 4 months or let Kellogg know how much outlay they need for wheat in 4 months, but I have often wondered just WHY the currency market has become available all of the sudden to the small guy. I may be wrong but liquidity cannot be the answer, can it?

As far as profiting from another, I don't even think twice about it. Business is competitive, nature is competitive; its just the way it is. If you want to appease your conscience, always play by the rules and never "inside trade", etc. That is where the problems arrise.

Forex is traded by different groups for a purpose. Some do this for a business and some gamble on it.

You have the following doing forex trading:

People, Institutions, Importers and Exporters - who trade because they need to convert their cash. Whether they inc or dec their profit doing so is inconsecquential to them as they need t convert by necessity.

Hedgers and Traders - who trade because they want to profit from this available opportunity. This is business for those who understand how this is done.

Gamblers - are those who trade forex not knowing enough about the trade but expect to profit based on HOPE.

I think forex is not immoral but it is the people gambling on it who are immoral. But if one does business on it based on supplying a legal need then he is not immoral at all.

Newbies into this trade are lucky to have the demo platforms of brokers to practice on. We can keep on learning here and trade live only when we have consistently profited in our demo. Then we can be part of the Group 2.

Maybe i'm just to free in my approach to life and my faith and all but i have never even asked myself the question you posed in your first post. I've never felt like i was doing anything other than entering a legitimate business transaction with another business when trading. Sure it's speculation/gambling, but i don't see it as throwing my money away like at a casino...and i've only done that with a few rolls of quarters for entertainment value!

: ) Thom

My 2 cents worth... for what it's worth...

There is no right and wrong answer to this for a start... in
anything, not just Forex, what one considers immoral, another may consider fine... niether is right or wrong, it is just that these things are consistent or inconsistent with these peoples sets of moral values.

Having said that, I will tell you how forex fits into my moral set of values. For a start, you are right, Forex is a zero sum game, which means for you to win, someone has to loose. shadeslay mentioned that this is the case with any business... I disagree. If I sell you an apple, I make money, and you get an apple, something that you decided was worth the money. This is not the case with Forex... one person takes out more of the same thing (money) than the next... so morality wise, it is not the same.

Having said it is not the same, I still think it is morally right, and here is my argument. Let's assume for a second there was a right and a wrong answer, and Forex trading was considered morally wrong. This would mean we would have to ban it. No Joe Bloggs (or I or you) fully understand the risks involved in Forex, and all of a sudden, I am not able to participate in it. That doesn't seem fair to me. Even if I one of the loosing ones, I understood the risk going in, so don't feel I have been hard done by... ie, there has been no immoral act against me.

So what about the people that do not fully understand the risks. Well, in my opinion, it was thier choice to participate before fully educating themselves in the risks.

At the end of the day, no one is forcing anyone to participate in forex, so how can it be immorral. If you don't like it, don't do it. I think this is akin to people that complain about TV shows. If you don't like it, flick the channel. No one is forcing you to watch that show, so why should other people miss out on it just because you don't like/find offensive something on it.

I don't think there is any immoral thing in buying and selling foreign exchange online or through banks. To say that would mean every business that needs speculations for success is immoral. And i am sure you will all agree with me that every business needs positive specualtions for success, though the degree of speculations required for each business may differ. keep on trading without condemnation. No worries.

I think it's easy to see the pitfalls of this facile variety of relativism. I'll leave it to others to elaborate. Just so you know, use of the H-word is prohibited.

To me, it is not trading itself that is unethical. We play the game willingly and accept all possible consequences. What is potentially unethical is the unfettered accumulation of capital for its own sake, without regard for the effects of consumption (in a practical, material sense, as well as from an environmental standpoint), and without any attention paid to using that capital for the betterment of us all. We all too often live without regard for others, and are encouraged to do so by a value system that prides the individual over the community.

I grew up poor. Every time I earn a profit greater then $500, I think that it takes somone working minimum wage two weeks to make what I just made in less than 5 minutes. I will give back in spades when the time comes.

so true! The thing is, you probably just clued in so many people(at least i hope they listen to the magic man) !!

it is a constant search for liquidity.

Trading is just another job as anything else is...lets see it that way..

Here is my input, I will offer some arguments for both views.

Forex can be viewed as immoral for two reasons: a) it is gambling and b) transactions do not provide a good or service to anyone. The first one is easily dismissed because not all Forex traders are gambling, with risk management it turns into a business and not gambling. The second point is much harder to argue against. I like what Merlin said, but retail Forex is a zero -sum game and basically exists as a competition where money is bought and sold for more or less money, not a good or service.

But think about this. If today I called my bank and asked them to change $100,000 into Euros, and then one year later I called them again and asked them to change that back into dollars, yielding a profit in dollars, would there be anything at all wrong with this? To me this would seem like legitimate trading, as I am trading one thing of value for another, evaluating that the other thing will increase in value. Retail Forex to me just seems to be this process but with leverage and, an important point, without actually getting the money you are exchanging in your account in that currency. But do these differences change the basics of that process? I think it's a difficult thing to determine.

Personally I don't just rely on myself to decide whether things are moral or immoral, for me this is based on Islamic teaching so I would rely on religious scholars who would investigate the matter and make a decision. There is a lot about economics in the Islamic sources, especially pertaining to trade and so I know there is guidance even in these matters. Scholars that I trust have said that Forex is valid as long as one does not take or give interest and as long as it is spot (not futures), and this verdict is enough for me to trade Forex with a clear conscience.

good post, as with all endeavors intention is of the utmost importance.

In capitalism people do not enter into any exchange unless it is to their mutual benefit. If someone is unhappy with the terms of the exchange they do not transact -its that simple.

So in forex you are not hurting anyone because there is free exchange - every buyer is a willing buyer and every seller is a willing seller. Noone is forced to take the other side.

Sure you could be healing the sick or fighting poverty instead of trading but so could alot of people doing normal jobs. In addition, if you make a tonne of money you can help even more people than you could any other way.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts' donations will save more lives than Mother Theresa. Money is just a resource - its what you do with it that matters.

old japan saying:

if willinglee you leve monee on table,
then i happee take.

:

"As we all have agreed trading is in one form or another gambling. " Right off the bat your basic premise is wrong. "We" ??? How did you come to that conclusion? "trading is in one form or another gambling." ??? Really? Sounds to me like that is YOUR belief, to assign your belief to the all encompassing WE is a little much.

If you truly worry about such things, perhaps you need to find another line of work.

To me forex trading and trading in general is pure natural selection. The better, stronger, smarter trader lives to trade another day and while the weaker trader doesn't. No one gets concerned about the "morality" of natural selection in nature, and other aspects of life, so why should we here?

Forget all the do and do not in life. They are like mt4 indicators. In the end you have so many that you can't function any more in life. Just like you can't trade anymore with overloaded indicators.
Rather look at the good things you can still do for others ( out of free will - not out of guilt )
You can be assured that it is the way to a happy living.
Want to try ? Start here http://www.tearfund.org.nz/child_spo...ip/sponsor.php

Have a nice weekend

Ah here's the rub though, at the time the person puts the money in do they feel it was worth the money spent when they felt they might profit from the venture? It's only when you add in the loss sustained the a person is likely to feel they didn't get something of value. The same could be applied to any product or service purchased.