It is not necessary to only trade assets with underlying value in order to make a profit. Even a debt has value and can be bought or sold.
Placing bets is not an invalid mechanism for speculating on share price or asset value or currency exchange rate etc. merely because possession of an asset is not involved.
But let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, which is making money. Are you trading forex?
You have a point, but it is still not convincing to me. My understanding of the forex market and brokers completely changed after reading School of Pipsology, and I’m quite disappointed.
Yes, But not in profit till today 
The difference between “actual” and “virtual” is very smudged nowadays. The “actual” currency that you mention is not actually money at all. Only cash is actual money. Even salaries are only bookkeeping entries between two accounts. Crypto, like Bitcoin, for example, are entirely virtual whether you buy/sell it with a wallet or trade it as a CFD through a broker.
The key point here is not whether it is real or not. The point is that the bid/offer spread offered by your broker is always directly derived from the current real market price. Therefore, the price at which you buy or sell via your broker will always be tracking the actual price in the real interbank market (ignoring spread differences, etc).
Therefore, from a price point of view there is no relevance whether the asset is real or virtual. On the other hand there are significant benefits from using a virtual market:
So whether you are dealing with a real currency or a virtual one, the price evolvement is the same. One is a close shadow of the other.
So there is no difference in practical terms that makes one trading and the other gambling.
In my opinion the short answer is …YES!!!
And when you accept that simple reality you will begin to see an improvement in your forex trading outcome.
I will never understand why it is that when citing gambling examples people always look to casinos which usually have totally random outcomes. When Lebron’s team lines up against the last ranked team in the NBL what do you think the outcome will be? The latter is gambling material too of which the outcome is known before the first ball is tipped. In the same way that forex people analyze charts and trends people who gamble do their homework and examine past history, weak opponents, injured stars, home advantage and all the rest.
I am not a religious person, and I do not believe in God or an afterlife.
I also do not consider gambling as wrong, but today I realized, after checking the School of Pipsology, that the current Forex market includes no real buy, sell, or currency exchange. Thus, it is highly similar to casino gambling.
People are trading against liquidity providers or Forex brokers - this is really scary. No one wants to pay a lot from their pocket, even if it’s bigger.
There is gambling and there is gambling.
In roulette, the ball randomly falls on a number. There is no knowledge, analysis or skill or any other action which the player can take which affects this outcome. No number from 1-36 has a higher probability of being called than any other. That is true gambling.
In other forms of gambling, it is possible for the player to use knowledge, analysis and skill to gauge that a certain outcome has a higher probability than any other. This is also true in investment, but also true in other areas of life.
Accept that not a thing in life is completely predictable, but some things are less probable than others.
What you are trying to justify is a logical fallacy.
I did not say anywhere that a banknote or paper note is the only real currency. Virtual currency or stocks are also real, but they include intrinsic value.
Normally, when you transfer money to someone’s bank, in exchange, you get a product, services, or another currency, whether it’s digital or physical.
My post was never about virtual or physical currencies; it’s about you placing a Lot in your MetaTrader, thinking you’re trading, but in reality, you’re not buying, selling, or having an exchange transaction. Instead, you’re just betting 1 Lot against the market maker (Forex broker or liquidity provider). I explained this here
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I disagree with your points. There are a lot of gamblers who do analysis, use math, and conduct technical analysis before betting, thereby increasing their possibility of winning. Not everything in gambling provides random outcomes.
There are two types of gambling.
Game of Skill Gambling: Games that involve more skill than luck fall into this category. For example, people betting on Rummy, Ludo, Cards, etc.
Game of Luck Gambling (Also known as Game of Chances): Games that involve more luck than skill fall under this category. For example, roulette, lottery systems, etc.
If we are not creating any intrinsic value by placing a trade on Metatrader because our trade does not actually involve a transaction like exchange (buying/selling), then it is not a trade but a bet.
I feel the Forex market involves market makers and is nothing more than a game of skill gambling.
I am not trying to justify anything, just pointing out your misunderstandings. If you don’t wish to trade then don’t. Who cares!
For the record this guy messaged me privately begging me to show him how to trade like I do. How do you try to teach someone like this anything?
Not begging but asking for help. I never mentioned anywhere that I am a big profitable trader; instead, I mentioned the reality that I am making losses.
There is no shame in asking for help, but your unprofessional and rude behavior is evident here. But no problem, sometimes we get help when we ask, sometimes not. 
Instead, you should have informed me in the same private message that you’re not interested in helping or advising, instead of trying to insult me in a public forum. I asked for help from a lot of members of this forum in private messages, and some helped, some gave advice, and some clearly said no, but no one tried to insult me like you did.
I don’t mind if my trades are described as bets. In fact as I’m based in the UK, my forex trading is done through a spreadbetting account. I recognise it as a type of betting, but it’s complicated because the UK authorities do not regard forex spreadbetting as gambling.
A financial spreadbetting account and spreadbetters’ techniques are not comparable with roulette.
Exactly. To be honest, this subject has been discussed multiple times. I can see where this thread is going. haha
I’m out, bro.
IMO, a better term to use than “gambling” is “speculating”. Of course, some people who are speculating are actually gambling, but not all speculating is gambling.
Our product is not currency nor commodities nor equities - it is price. We trade the price development of whatever the underlying product might be. This is legitimate trading and the fact that it is a position based on price does not automatically make it a gamble.
Financial markets are complex nowadays and there are many ways and reasons for using CFD’s instead of the actual underlying product. The use of these does not automatically mean one is gambling.
For example, the futures and options markets have been around for decades already. These are instruments that lock in a price for a future date. They are not the actual product, they are the price of that product. Some futures/options are convertible into the underlying product on expiry but most such contracts are closed before expiry and sometimes rolled over into the next contract date.
Futures and options are used by major industries such as electricity and oil producers to lock in future prices. This is not gambling. Banks use futures and options to hedge against interest rate moves. Investment funds use these instruments to trim their exposure etc.
So one should say that it is NOT the instrument that defines whether one is gambling - it is how the person USES these instruments that defines that.
Speculating is a process that is based on the view that prices will be either higher or lower in the future than where they are now. One might call that gambling, but it is the process and not the product that defines that. It is irrelevant whether the position is formed with the actual product or with an instrument because the prices are tightly linked together.
As has been said, this argument about gambling recurs over and over again. The simple answer is if one is comfortable with trading, then trade. If not, then don’t. 
It might be more interesting to consider what in life is NOT gambling. Many things in life are not as secure as they might seem.
Do you own your own house or apartment? You must have thought its value was going to go up. But that cannot be guaranteed. Nor the possibility that its value will have risen to the point in time at which you need to sell it. Is that not gambling?
It’s very complicated, because spreadbetting is considered gambling in some situations but not in others. It’s confusing to say the least.
I’d certainly consider it as a form of gambling, especially when leverage is involved, but it’s not entirely random like a casino.
I’d hit the block button. He does this boasting thing about never making a losing trade, but only ever trades a $100 account. Ask yourself why somebody would only ever trade a tiny account like that yet never make a losing trade. All the arrogant boasting on the days it goes well get posted on here, but you only see these every couple of months.
That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with this approach. Using a small account to limit your risk is one way to do it, then if it goes badly wrong you only lose a small amount but when it goes well you make a lot. But don’t trust anybody that only shows snippets of their results, or even pictures. Because 99.9% of the time this is somebody only showing you the bit that they want you to see.
Yes, I get the same leverage as from any UK regulated broker but here spread betting profits are tax-exempt.