Forex v Roulette

What is the difference? Some would say a lot. I would say, not much, except that the odds in the forex market is not stacked against you like with the green zero.

If I bet on black, chances should be 50%, but the green changes the odds to 48.65%, which favours the casino. What has this got to do with forex? In forex the odds are really 50:50 and the great thing is that you can bet both ways.

If you are wrong when you bet up, you are right when down gets hit and you don�t lose the money on up. It stays on the �table�. Now you have an up position, counter it with another down bet. In this way you can narrow the range in which you play, knowing that if the price moves out of that range, you�re in the money.

Test it.

Cheers

L

The odds are definatly for the informed trader, an informed gambler dosnt get much of an increase in odds.

In roulette your payout is directly porportional to the odds you play eg 50/50 or 1/XX ammount of numbers (not all that up on roulette actually :wink: )
In forex, your payout is proportional to your information – knowing when to properly exit, or to have some plan on how to exit is better. In roulette it dosnt matter what you know as far as your payout is concerned (unless you can see the future, in which case I’ld still trade the forex instead :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

Your odds at “winning at Forex” when you know what you are doing is statistically much better than a game of chance.

If you have studied fundamental analysis and technical analysis, [B]you can fairly accurately predict which direction the market is headed, and when to get out.[/B] Compared to roulette, you have no way to “increase your odds” (except the one guy who made a very complex formula.)

There is strong evidence to support that forex is not simply gambling, since many people can do it for a living. If it was truely gambling and the odds were 50/50, you should always eventually end up back where you started (or go broke.) The key is minimizing any trades that go against you using stop-losses, and maximizing your profit. Even if you win 50% and lose 50% but your actual winnings in pip-size is larger than your losses, you win.

Yes, forex is riskier than many other forms of investments. But please don’t confuse “risk” with “gambling”. If you don’t feel comfortable with it, go buy some bonds.

Forex is not a zero sum game. If you are an even 50/50, then you will fall short as the house takes their cut.

The house being the broker and their cut being the spread.

Therefore to be profitable, you have to win more than you lose.

More specifically, you either have to win bigger than you lose or you have to win more frequently than you lose.

Of course doing both is preferred. :smiley:

These two things taken together are not possible in roulette.

It does not require an extensive mathematical background to look at the 38 identically sized spaces on an American roulette wheel (note the 35-1 payoff on a single number) and conclude that the game is unbeatable.

With a 1/38 chance of having a number come up on the next spin and the 35-1 payoff, it is easy to calculate the often quoted expectancy of the player of -5.26.

The unbeatability of the roulette wheel is based on the mechanical perfection of the wheel - such a conclusion is based on the assumption that the ball has an equal chance of landing in each pocket.

There is only one way to beat roulette and that is by using a visual ballistic or mechanical system. A mathematical progressive system will always fail because of the above.

The website for the worlds’s formost authority on visual ballistics is given below.
I have mastered this system myself and it really works and professionals use it to make large sums of money.

But it is nevertheless, gambling and so I do not use it.

AdvantagePlayer.com: Roulette - Hosted by Laurence Scott

I wasn’t talking about roulette.

Originally Posted by rhodytrader
More specifically, you either have to win bigger than you lose or you have to win more frequently than you lose.

I know this - we are contrasting the predictability of forex versus the unknowns of roulette. It is a comparison.

I am sorry if you misunderstood me.

1)odds are not 50%
2)advantage is you can drawdown
3)leverage allows you to play with small capital

You have to take the spread and the cost to enter / exit the market in to account.

With roulette, the risk to reward is 1 for 1 on a black or red bet but your odds are slightly less than 50% because of that green.

With forex, the price has a 50:50 chance of going up 100 pips or down 100 pips. But when spreads and commission is taken in to account, the risk to reward is less than 1 for 1.

The odds also start decreasing the further you want or anticipate the price to go. This is why you can potentially be rewarded more relative to the risk. For example 3 for 1.

Like roulette, the odds are low of picking a number compared to black or red. That’s why the reward is higher.

The difference is that the forex market has memory and pattern and behaves somewhat predictably. Roulette is random and has no memory or predictability.