I thought about this over night and the next time someone asks me is trading in the forex gambling. I would answer yes and no it depends on what your definition of gambling is. It’s an activity that has an element of risk and reward, the same as: being born, walking a across the street, asking for directions, taking any advice, then yes it’s like gambling. If your definition of gambling is any activity that you approach where you don’t consider risk to be a overriding factor or there is no risk involved then no it’s not. Whether you define trading as gambling or not, is not the point. What you have to do is try to limit the risk by approaching trading in my case, my approach is: learn to crawl, then walk, then run and then marathon running in that order. Like any activity that involves any risk doing my approach doesn’t mean you’ve eliminated the risktotally. The same as you can limit the risk of hurting yourself by when you’re putting on your pants, don’t stand on a ledge 5 stories up on a windy day.
So my personal opinion is no matter how many times we discuss something we can always learn somthing new
A businessman has no more has control over risk than anyone in a trade. How does one “control” risk? You enter a trade, yes you can cut out immediately for a small loss, but you cannot control what price does after you enter it. All you can control is your share that is at stake somewhat. A businessman that opens a business, and the economy immediately falls apart can’t control that. He can only choose to shut things down, or try to ride it out. What if his building burns down? There are more uncontrollable ifs for a business, than there are for a straight bet.
In a pro gambler situation, one has already assessed what they are willing to lose should things go awry prior to the wager. That is risk control just as any other form is. A businessman has no advantage. Don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise.
About “overbought” and “oversold”… Don’t get me started.
Well isn’t it? here’s always a CHANCE that you won’t make it to work. Want the odds? Here they are. So emphatically YES there is risk in everything. But that’s being pedantic.
We are talking solely about monetary risk here. When you enter a trade, you have money at risk, with no certain outcome in front of you. That my friend, is the Webster’s definition of gambling.
You don’t HAVE to put your pants on five stories up if you don’t like your chances out there any more than you don’t HAVE to enter a trade. That’s your risk control at work. See the best setups, enter, wait, reap reward, or try again.
I can only figure that there is a translation issue somewhere - if you mean a business person has no advantage in trading I agree, if you mean a business person has no advantage in risk control when carrying out his business (speculation) over a gambler betting on a horse race then I disagree.
Self delusion is an affliction that many suffer from, it’s particularly nasty in that the sufferer is unaware of his affliction - as far as I know I’m not suffering from any self delusions
Did you even bother to read the rest of the post? Or just those two lines?
Because if it was just those two sentences, I can certainly understand how you would come to the conclusion you did, and also how you could think you aren’t delusional.
It’s being MADE pedantic by those that do not truly understand the idea of what risk is.
Scroll back up there, and read gp0053’s post. Maybe you can understand it better the way it’s explained in that post. You obviously have reading comprehension issues with mine.
I certainly have no comprehension issues with your post…i perfectly understand your arguments…the only issue is that you don’t (want to) understand/accept that my definition/understanding of gambling is different to yours…
So, you feel you can arbitrarily change the definition of a word, and expect to communicate well with others?
Good luck with that…
[B]gam·ble
[gam-buhl] Show IPA verb, gam·bled, gam·bling, noun
verb (used without object)
1.
to play at any game of chance for money or other stakes.
2.
to stake or risk money, or anything of value, on the outcome of something involving chance: to gamble on a toss of the dice.
verb (used with object)
3.
to lose or squander by betting (usually followed by away ): He gambled all his hard-earned money away in one night.
4.
to wager or risk (money or something else of value): to gamble one’s freedom.
5.
to take a chance on; venture; risk: I’m gambling that our new store will be a success.
noun
6.
any matter or thing involving risk or hazardous uncertainty.
7.
a venture in a game of chance for stakes, especially for high stakes.
Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English gamenen to play ( Old English gamenian ), with substitution of -le for -en; see game1[/B]
maybe you should try reading more carefully…i never changed the definition of any word…just said that i don’t agree with you seeing trading as gambling…
never said you/anybody have to see it my way…but you expect that everybody has to see things as you do…your problem…good luck with that
There it is…i guess you saw the word “my”, no?
i said that what is gambling for me personally is obviously not the same as for you…that’s it…
and in the next post you wrote that i want to change the official definition of gambling, and that’s just not true…
Explain to me how we can communicate if your definition is different?
These discussions have always come down to a matter of semantics. You either accept the definition as it is, or try to fishtail around it, and use the synonym that most suits your personal, or maybe moral definition best.
At the heart of it, it’s still what it is. As Dancat said, the color of lipstick doesn’t matter.
That’s what a discussion is about…different opinions, other way it wouldn’t make sense to discuss…we would just say “agreed”…or do you see the principles of a discussion diffetent (then we could open a new thread about that…kidding)?
Anyway, we made our points…i get yours but still think that trading and sports betting are different things…
I enjoy a good discussion, regardless of topic, the argument of gambling vs speculation has always been one that has fascinated me.
Each has their own view, some shout about it (use of caps), others discuss with reasoned argument, at the end of the day have I learned anything from these discussions?
Not really - perhaps the only thing I can reflect on is not to approach trading with a gambler’s view.
Maybe I can suggest (I know most new traders will not want to hear this) that trading should be approached as a business venture, with all that entails.
Since we are on Newbie Island can I also suggest to new traders that if you forget about being a gambler and take seriously, and I mean really seriously (I’m tempted to use caps) the art of trading you WILL succeed.
Maybe learn the phenomena of over-trading, revenge trading, hunch-trading, trading without stops, trading on others’ opinions, signal trading and the plethora of other aspects of gambler trading - and then learn how to avoid these.
BTW M.Tang, I do read all the posts, I also like to provoke thought with mine.
Yes forex is different from gambling. In forex you can manage trading and set it on your preferred targets, You decide what steps will be secure for your capital . In gamlng nothing is in your hands . You can loose all your amount any time.
I disagree with the fact that some persons think that forex is gambling never. Forex trading is like stocks trading and not gambling if forex was gambling then I think everyone will be rich from trading forex. If you come across professional and successful traders, they will let you know that they have rules and strategies they follow to succeed.
Gambling: Fixed odds which might turn in your favor.
Forex: Odds which can be turned in to your favor.
Business: No odds, just hard work will generate things in your favor.
Forex is for me not gambling because you can eliminate part of the chance you are losing your “bet”. For example, if the casino red / black was on a system with a resistance / support. So there were 30 black, and suddenly, 25 reds appear (put that in a chart candle and you will get a nice hammer, would you go for red or black? In gambling it does not matter, the odd for getting a new black or red are the same (even worse for the player because there is a 0). In Forex, it does matter (this is overly simplified but it graps the concept). Hence gambling is not Forex and vice versa.
