Is trading Forex immoral??

OK, You know what, Change the subject.

Is Sex Immoral?

lol

Bill,

I believe it is not always beneficial to think of every single action as being in either one of two buckets: a "moral bucket" and an "immoral bucket." Certainly I agree that some acts do not have to fall into either bucket.

However, I think that the social impact(s) of an action go a long way in dertermining the morality of that action if it is going to be classified as one or the other. I agree with you, a certain action does not necessarily have to fulfill a social function to be moral - when I sneeze (an action) I do not question the morality of it. Would I say that it is "moral" to sneeze or "not immoral"? No, that sounds silly to me.

On the contrary, the very same action in a different context may have quite a different social impact and definitely makes the leap to being immoral or moral. If I am infected with ebola virus and intentionally sneeze into your mouth, this could be looked at as an act of homicide (an immoral act). A less extreme example perhaps: is my co-worker commiting an immoral act by coming to work with the flu, thereby infecting other people in our office?

What about sleeping? Well, I think that sleeping does serve a social purpose. How much less productive do you think society would be if we were somehow forced to get one or two hours of sleep each night? While sleeping definitely serves a biological function, I think that you can argue (as I am doing) that this does not preclude it from having social benefits and costs. Getting more hours of sleep each night can lead to better health and wellness. Getting less can lead to irratability and higher stress - precursors to illness. Does YOUR particular sleeping pattern have a social impact? I guess the best answer is that it may or may not, and I'll probably never know.

My point is that the issue of morality isn't always cut-and-dry, black-and-white. I think that for some very important actions it is appropriate and quite relevant to analyze their social benefits and costs. Gambling in particular. Trading less so. For some other actions, I think that they do not warrant such scrutiny at all.

My point in my lengthy posts above is to illustrate that the similarities in gambling and forex trading are usually only surface-deep. Lots of people make the analogy between gambling and trading. Like all analogies, it only shows "like-ness" or "same-ness", it does not prove truth. My posts were a response to the original poster's comment that forex trading directly equated to gambling and on that premise he or she was questioning the morality of trading.

How could addressing the morality of trading not include a detailed hash-through of its social impacts? Remember, the original poster made a comment along the lines of, "...everyone agrees to some degree that gambling is like trading..." Likewise, in responding to these comments, how could I not help but address the social impacts of gambling and how they are not at all similar to the social impacts of trading?

It was upon that premise that I concluded trading is NOT immoral. I am at a loss as to how to appropriately respond to the morality issue in post #1 without paying heed to its social costs and benefits. So perhaps I am overlooking something, but I still stand by my arguement that the social functions of trading and gambling are quite relevant in determining their morality - and therefore I disagree with you on that particular point. I am not prepared to so concretely argue that your sleeping habits demand a "moral" or "immoral" handle, and I appreciated the example!!

Thank you for your comments, you gave me a good opportunity to reason things out and think critically today. I hope that my post has the same effect for you. Good trading!

-=DAVE=-

You should think of forex like any competitive sports. For every winning team, there's a losing team. Except in sports, money isn't the main issue, the winners get the cheers, the glory and the bragging rights. The losers get the boos and the fat chicks. So do you think playing sports is immoral since in order for one team to win, the other team must lose?

I dont know whether Forex is immoral or not, but digging the fat chicks sure is!

From where I sit being or acting immorally is a religious judgement. Isn't that an oxymoron? When one person or group says it's immoral and another one doesn't who is right? This sort of reminds me of the group of nun's in Texas who are praying for the San Antonio Spurs to win, as if "god" takes sides during the NBA finals. Although it does look like the Spurs are going to do a clean sweep so maybe he put a few dollars on the series.

who is right then Fritz, you or the paedophile?

Do you have the right to punish that which you cannot understand?

That's one of the most misconstrued questions I've been asked in a few years. My hunch is that I understand more than you do.

that's a good idea....
there is some simmilarity between Trading and Sex.....
once the trade is closed in profit , you want to open more.......

I think many forex traders look at the whole market in a very narrow way.
There is more to forex than speculating. i.e buy a currency to sell at a favorable price.
International trade has forex as is backbone.
A Japanese investor wishing to invest his millions in UK for 5 years will care less if GBP/JPY is at 1.9600 or 1.9900. Reason being after the years, he will have made much more. But this sounds like a kill to retail forex trader.

Point is there is more to forex than retail trading.

well no, the point is valid.

Irrespective of your hunch it seemed from your post that you believe that morality is no common currency but varies markedly from group to group and individual to individual.

While this may be true in many cases, by touching upon such a sensetive area as paedophilia it seems that there are some morals we regard as applying to all humanity and where the question of 'who is right' is a forgone conclusion.

Slavery would be another example.

Yes Gmak, in situations such as pedophilia and slavery and several others I would agree with you. The reason that I stated that you misconstrued what I said is because you focused on the first sentence in my original post and yet my fundamental point that I was sharing was in my third sentence. If I were to rewrite that post I would now have written it diferently. My third sentence stated "When one person or group say's it's immoral and another one doesn't who is right?" So the point that I was making had to do with groups and individuals that Already Disagree. I was not including the obvious immoral judgements like pedophilia and slavery, the vast majority of the human race would agree that those two are immoral and inhumane. I was referring to instead issues like abortion, gay rights, birth control, whose religion/god is superior to the other groups and other issues etc. etc. In other words I was referring to issues that are currently being dialogued by groups and individuals and I Was Not referring to issues such as slavery and pedophilia that have no need to be dialogued by the general population of the world because the majority of human beings agree on those. Cheers,Fritz




QUOTE=Gmak;1466463]well no, the point is valid.

Irrespective of your hunch it seemed from your post that you believe that morality is no common currency but varies markedly from group to group and individual to individual.

While this may be true in many cases, by touching upon such a sensetive area as paedophilia it seems that there are some morals we regard as applying to all humanity and where the question of 'who is right' is a forgone conclusion.

Slavery would be another example.[/quote]

fair enough Fritz.

I suppose this discussion is for another place.

However We'll have to agree to disagree. In its time the rights and wrongs of slavery were debated with just as much and indeed greater ferocity than the issues you point out.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds to me like you are inferring that abortion, gay rights, birth control, whose god/religion is the right one are all on the same level of immorality as slavery and pedophilia?

To an extent yes in as much as they are all moral issues.

I also think moral truths can be exposed in a logical way without having to resort to the, as you put it, 'oxymoron' of a religious judgement.

The rights of a gay woman are just as important as those of a black slave. As, in my opinion, is the right to life of an unborn child.

Paedophilia and slavery are only more immoral than the issues you outline in the extent to which they remove these rights from the affected person.

To me an act is as immoral as its intent and consequence viewed through the lens of circumstance.

In terms of religion I hold that everyone has the right to believe what they wish so long as they do not infringe my rights in the process

I think Voltaire sums it up best in his statement 'I disagree with what you say but I shall defend with my life your right to say it'.

This i believe also encapsulates a universal truth.

When you ask the question 'who is right?' do you try and answer it or aquiesce into a moral ambivalence?

You know those crazy Texans, believing that god is watching his favorite (U.S.) football team, the Dallas Cowboys., Thats why they have a hole in the stadium roof and will have the same hole in their new stadium presently under construction. So he can watch down from the heavens. Duhhh.

Not really, they just didn't have enough funds for the original stadium roof. So they are keeping the same design for new one. Ya think they would have learned by now. Or at least had the sisters pray on it. :

Either have an open field or a dome.

this is the best comment i have read on markets. markets are not zero-sum game, period.

http://i.imgur.com/cYhkA.jpg

this thread is way more interesting than what's on the first page. don't call me names because 2 can play this game.

LOL... I'm not calling you names... take it easy, I'm just teasing you in a friendly-joking way.

this discussion was in 2007. in 2012 how do people regard forex? immoral or not?