Sorry y’all, I couldn’t help myself. It’s the weekend!
ROFL
I wz like huh?? lol
rawfle waffles
hay guise… how do u forex?.. guise?
1 Like
The difference here is, your asking “is forex LIKE gambling”?
That is very different to saying “IS forex gambling”…and definitely worth posing the question.
To be like doesn’t nescessarily to be the same. To be like all that needs to determine is if there are similar characteristics in both endeavours.
Then at what point could we then say ok,ok, forex is or is not like gambling - i am not sure on that?
From that basis we could then determine also whether or not if forex is gambling.
I definitely like the idea if breaking the topic down and delving a little deeper than before.
We need to think about the similarities for starters and then the differences and then add the 2 together and see what definitive conclusions can be reached - i still believe this topic to be somewhat up in the air and i would like a resolution we can all agree on once and for all.
Definitely worth thinking about…i know of one peculiar fellow who claims that if forex was gambling he would stop immediately as it would be against his religous beliefs…but this fellow was definitely peculiar…but all these facts need to be weighed up, discussed, analysed and healthly debated to reach a timely and ultimate conclusion.
I would recommend the thread become a sticky thread to the moderators so that no material is lost prior to the resolution. I also believe that an international convention would need to be held to deliver the outcome to the world - i suggest Vegas or Monte Carlo as possible location for this…
The outcome delivered at the convention would then lay to rest one way or another this much debated topic, and the dicitionary definition of forex could then have either forex is gambling; or
forex is not gambling; or
forex is similar to gambling but its not gambling; or
forex is not similar to gambling but is gambling
Early next week, if the track conditions improve i will be trying to build my stake by placing bets on gbp/jpy gaining strength. I hope the odds are stacked in my favour
^ the long troll
Interesting thread.
Initially for me, fx was like gambling… and I suspect most starters see some similarities. Nowadays, it is nothing like gambling. A key factor being “excitement” and “buzz”. Trading long time frames, and long holds gets boring… very boring… and quite far from the gambling feeling that short term time frames give.
The other thing with gambling is that there is an acknowledgement that the gambler doesn’t know what will happen next. As soon as you introduce a system and statistics (even a system based on a casino game such as blackjack), it’s no longer pure gambling, but simply running out a system with an expected average and result.
is forex like gambling ?
Correct education about FOREX trading does not know this question.
Sovereigns, Corporates, Exporters, real-money flows and Central Banks do everything else as an objective engaging in FOREX trading but gambling.
Retail traders do…because a lot of retail traders don’t know what FOREX is about…the buying and selling of money for profit with all it’s influences, underlying currents, position jostling, mind games and the like.
I knew posting this would create a monster. 
Fxdean you use the word Boring. I wouldn’t characterize it that way, I would say it becomes Routine rather than boring. Just from my own personal viewpoint. For some people routine may be boring and maybe it will be for me eventually.
Heads says it is, tails says it isn’t.
Talon, what have you done?
lol
lol nice to see new questions like this here!
This topic should be a sticky as it gets asked that often!
Or a poll to answer it once and for all.
Hey TalonD.
You’ve become ‘one sick puppy’ (posting a thread with a title such as this)!!! LOL!!!
I thought I was ‘seeing things’ at first!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
:mad:i was at the casino this weekend well friday night for the first time in my life . all i can say is wow i saw £2000 worth of chips turn to pure air with in minutes now i know that happens in trading but hey gambbling you are vetually hopeless .were as in trading you can put a stoplose and there are patterns and analysis options . gambling there is you your money and the donation bucket .
I consider a Friend ‘making me stop when I loose £1000’ my stop loss in a casino!
Thankyou for this great, another opportunity for forum members to settle this, I too hope we do.
IMHO, forex is more not like gambling than like gambling.
As stated before, my main reason is the difference in mathematical probability of outcomes between forex/trading and gambling. In gambling the probability of an event happening is usually fixed: like 1/2 for coin toss, 1/52 or less for pulling up a card from a fair deck, or 1/??? for roulette. For forex, the probability can be calculated using a fixed stoploss & takeprofit criteria to come up with probability figures for win/loss and R:R, but in the true sense one can exit anywhere in between irrespective of the set stop/target: given 40p stoploss, one may exit off any of these forty and still leave part position open. or trialling stop - try moving gambling stoploss to breakeven and attach illustrative charts?
The psychology of persons in the two activity will differ as mentioned above (excitement vs. buzz/bizz?) in that one is a game for thrill while the other is work for a living. In other words, one can gamble while sipping a strong drink, but that wouldn’t work for forex now would it?
Other points to consider is the predictive ability of most trading systems upon the markets, which is supposed to be impossible in gambling at least according to the book. The statistical data available for back-testing in trading decision-making (which is also a differing process). And one cannot use an EA to gamble!
Further, I think that applying a system to a gambling activity doesn’t make it less gambling or closer to trading because it doesn’t not change the above stark differences but only plays with available probabilities of fixed win/loose gamble.
Some people call all of Wall Street a big casino. Some would say buying a used car is a gamble. I suppose it depends on how you define gambling. If taking any risk is gambling, then there is risk in Forex, as in any market. Even US T-Bonds lose value as interest rates rise. So if you define gambling as taking any risk, then I’d say yes. If you define gambling as placing bets on a game of pure chance, where each roll of the dice is completely independent of the previous roll, then I’d say no. It’s a question of semantics. You must define “gambling” to answer the question.
The better question is, is each candle in Forex completely uncorrelated to all previous candles? Can you prove, at least in certain situations, that the next candle will have some correlation to previous candles?