Do any of you Gamble?

[Aesop20]

Hey guys,

Just an interesting thought I had earlier, I just wondered if any of you gamble? Not on Forex but Sports gambling... I only ask because I like to gamble and many people say Forex is just another form of Gambling, something I disagree with because it's possible to learn things in Forex, like strategies and the way the markets move etc.. but then i guess many could say you can learn a Horse/Team inside out and predict their wins/loses/moves (Professional Gamblers make a killing)

The thing is when I trade Forex and when I do Sports Gambling I get the same flutter, but perhaps that is just because it's my money on the line and despite it all ANYTHING can happen in a few seconds in either? Just wondered if sub consciously it drew me to Forex in the first place...

[souljie]

Hey Aesop,

I don't gamble regularly but I think it all depends on the individual. Those professional gamblers you talk about would undoubtedly have money management in place and some kind of edge (winning strategy) - either that or they're super lucky lol. You could view forex the same way. If you don't have an edge and money management it really just is gambling, as we don't know for certain how the market will move. I get a bit of that flutter sensation when I see my position(s) moving but I guess we'll eventually get used to it once we've traded enough times.

[Aesop20]

Yeah that is very true, it's much and the same in many ways i suppose. I prefer to treat sports gambling as just that and treat it as a bit of fun at the weekend on the football, whereas with Forex it's very much about reducing the "gamble" and risk through knowledge, strategy etc. I suppose it's down to the fact that you're still risking money either way that creates that "flutter"

[KingKaivar]

I don't gamble on sports but I've been a poker fan for half a decade. When I first began learning about trading, I was surprised to see similarities between trading and gambling. The terminology is a little different, but the key to winning in both is to put your money in when you're getting good odds, and of course bankroll/money management.

But I think trading offers a better advantage over sports games or poker in that you can take your time in analysing setups, especially on daily timeframes and up. In a poker game, you might only get 30s to make a decision, and in a way it's similar to daytrading. And unlike the market, good poker players should be able to psychologically profile you and kill you if you're not careful. On the otherhand, the market doesn't care what you do as an individual.

[kingkevbo]

I only gamble on the Grand National (which you'd think was a complete lottery, but I've picked the winner more times than I haven't).

Otherwise I don't gamble at all. I don't consider FX as a form of gambling.

[Aesop20]

Yeah I would say the Grand National is pretty unpredictable, you've done well to pick winners especially as the odds are generally good for the winners.

Why do you not think Forex is a form of Gambling, interested to hear your opinion

[kingkevbo]

I don't consider FX as a form of gambling for a number of reasons.

1. You can get out of a trade when you like either manually, or with a pre-determined stop loss. If you betted on a horse race, or a football game you cant minimise your loss before the end of the game or race. If your team is down 10-0 or your horse is at the back of the field, that's it, your money's more than likely gone. You can't go to the booky and say 'can I have 50% of my money back now, because things aren't turning out as I expected'. I suppose binary options are a bit like a horse race, I would consider binary options as gambling.

2. Determining what is going to happen in the future is a lot more unpredictable in sports than it is in FX. I imagine you could try to apply technical and fundamental analysis and market sentiment to a football game, but I'm not sure that it would get you very far. Yes Manchester United will almost certainly beat Accrington Stanley in the FA cup, and market sentiment will probably be on Man U's side, but the booky is not going to give you a good price on that. In FX, the price is evens no matter what is the more likely outcome.

3. In FX the actions of the big commercial players actually have an effect on the market, and if you know what they are doing, you can have a much better idea on which way the market will move. You have things like the COT report to tell you what the big players are doing. If you knew that barclays had put a 10 billion dollar bet on Accrington Stanley, it wouldn't make them any more likely to win (assuming nobodys bent, sometimes difficult to do ;-) )

Yes i'm sure there are counter arguments to all of my above arguments, I know that a lot of people consider FX gambling, but you asked for my opinion, and whether I'm right or wrong, I'm more than happy to give it to you :-)

[baz1982]

There's a few threads in whether FX is gambling; personally, I think that it IS but with the learnable side if it, you're swinging the odds in your favour. Crossing the road is a gamble.

I don't sports bet but I'm partial to a bit of BlackJack & occasionally a spot of Texas Hold 'Em.

As for the Grand National: my wife's work always do a sweepstake & for the past 6yrs, she's always had 1st, 2nd or 3rd so I'll be throwing down an each-way bet on her horse next year.

I went on a stag-do at the dogs before & a few of us won a small amount of mon£y & a few of us lost. Then there was one guy who sneaked off to place his bets & he only let on that he was £6k up at the end of the day - cheers for the tips you Ball-Bag!!!

[SimonTemplar]

The thing is when I trade Forex and when I do Sports Gambling I get the same flutter, but perhaps that is just because it's my money on the line and despite it all ANYTHING can happen in a few seconds in either? Just wondered if sub consciously it drew me to Forex in the first place...

I bet a little on boxing, nothing serious, just hobby stuff.

But to pick up on the bit I have highlighted, personally I would not want to feel the same 'flutter' when trading as I do watching sport with money on it. I don't believe that it was the same part of my personality that brought me to trading, I was attracted to trading for flexibility and open-ended earnings. I would suggest that trading needs to be a mechanical process if it is to be successful over the long haul. I practised, practised and then practised some more until my trading became a mechanical process, and if you are still feeling the flutter then I'd really try to focus on eradicating it. Not trying to be negative, but this is serious stuff and imho bringing emotion into trading can be a slippery slope.

ST

[kingkevbo]

The excitement that watching the Grand National gives me when you see your horse coming in first is probably the most excited I get when watching a sporting event and the most i've ever won was around £200. Although I was pretty excited during the champions league final, being a Chelsea fan , and there was no money on that. I agree with ST that I too would not want to feel that excitement during a winning FX trade, as I wouldn't want to feel the opposite during a losing one. Trading on emotion is likely to promote revenge trades, and the market will be the only winner.