How is forex trading different from gambling?

[quote=“tommor, post:148, topic:71395”]
hose with more knowledge of horse racing tend to win more than novices.
[/quote]IF you wanted to win at horse racing yesteryear,[ the bookies have weeded out nearly all what they called their liability bets now,] it was a waiting game abit like trading

Agree with you.

That’s right. Only because of the risk factor and addictive nature, trading is usually compared to gambling. But if we stay careful and trade wisely, then there’s hardly anything in common between the two.

Here is the definition of gambling:
“Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as “the stakes”) on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize.[1] The outcome of the wager is often immediate, such as a single roll of dice or a spin of a roulette wheel, but longer time frames are also common, allowing wagers on the outcome of a future sports contest or even an entire sports season.”

According to the definition you described here there are major differences between gambling and forex trading. In Forex trading you have to have a plan. Gambling is an immediate response without having a predetermined outcome. In gambling you either win or lose. You have no control of the outcome. Forex trading gives you a way to control how much you are willing to risk (stop loss). Forex is serious business and should be treated as such. Gambling is not a business unless you are an owner of a casino, race track, sports betting establishment, etc. These are only a few of the differences between Forex and gambling! Any comments would be appreciated! Thanks! :sunglasses:

many comments here are somewhat offensive, guys peace and love hahahaahahahah

There are many differences between gambling and trade. There is no possibility of gambling but trading can be done from a 95% chance. If every trader follows money management according to discipline, it will not take long to succeed. And gambling can never be successful.

A lot of forum members have great insights on this topic.
I could write an essay on this subject alone. But if I had to narrow it down to just one thing it would be - in trading, you are not basing your guesses on luck or a favorite color, but on sound analysis.

The idea is to make a 95% profit ratio in trading. It is possible to maintain risk through analysis. There are many more conditions that have made trading a reality. And gambling is totally different.

In trading, the profits are made on the basis of trader’s knowledge, analysis and their way of executing trades while in gambling there are no chances that you will win every time, it all depends on luck.

Certainly yes. Moreover, I think that this incorrect opinion like “trading is a gambling” is so spread today that it makes a lot of people reject trading as the possible option for earning money. I know some people who state that you only will lose all your money due to trading and will gain no profits. To my mind, there are plenty of differences between these two notions, as well as some similarities, like you stated about risks. Nevertheless, trading isn’t admitted as a possible gambling activity mainly because it really brings profits and the forex market count about couple of trillions of dollars every day.

In pure gambling probabilities are against you, the loss is guaranteed on distance. However in trading, there are opportunities to enter in a trade with positive expected value, but it is hard to determine exact time when it happens.

Agreed with you on this, mate.
Thanks for sharing your view on that.

Forex trading can be different, gambling likewise. I mean that surely, successful trading is not about gambling, but about thorough analysis and critical thinking, dealing with the facts and making logical emotionless decisions. However, gambling can also be different. There are lots of mathematicians who come to casino and make a fortune due to their mathematical background.

Forex trading is nothing like gambling if you know what you’re doing.

Gambling is based more on chance, while Forex trading is based more on evidence. If we study the news and use technical/fundamental analysis, then we’re making evidence based decisions about our trades. Meanwhile, the majority of gambling opportunities simply rely on chance. Personally, I think Forex is a better option because you can come up with some structure that makes it more likely to profit.

What I believe is forex trading requires proper knowledge, practice and dedication to excel while gambling is just based on luck which doesn’t works while trading in forex.

Main thing is risk Management.
Most gamblers use the money they have there and then to place bets .
I often thought if gamblers used the Risk Management we use a traders they wouldn’t suffer as much financially and emotionally

There is good reason behind the fact, that most of theories on Money Management (from mid XX century) are based on gamble games and not investments/trading.

Do you have any data on how different is risk management quality between traders and gamblers? I would say, that most traders also suck at risk management - otherwise we would not see the “76% of CFD traders lose the account within a year” on every brokers website.

Depends how you play it really - but technically you are right yes.

Treat RR as odds in Forex.

If you hit a 10 RR trade, that’s a 10/1 shot! Always aim for high RR, or a high win rate - otherwise you’ll never be successful in trading.

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In principle yes but you can then refine your trade to make the 10R trade more like probable which you can’t do with gambling. But it’s similar in that regard.

For example a 10/1 bet statistically comes in 9.1% of the time and 3/1 25% of the time. That is that. With trading you can attempt to refine your skill to raise the win rate to say 30% on 3R trade and 10% on 10R trades and turn a profit.