Forex trading involves risk as with any type of investment. Just because trading involves risk does not mean it is gambling. They do not call the stock market gambling and it has the same amount of risk as the forex market.
In order to trade the forex market you need a strategy. Developing a bonafide strategy allows a trader to eliminate as much of the risk as possible. Obviously no one can predict the future however a real strategy allows people to make a profit. There is a reason many people make forex trading their full time job. How do these people eliminate the risk that is involved? By educating themselves and developing a clear winning strategy.
I think we’re all slightly addicted to trading in all facets not just placing trades but the theory, technicals and chart analysis it’s a way of life lol
This forum was designed to allow everybody to share their thoughts and we do respect everybody’s own thoughts.
It is a room for everyone to share and communicate with one another. If there are still people who believes that trading is gambling or not, all we can do is to accept their opinion and share ours with them.
I totally agree with you. Though there are similarities like both of them does get you the high adrenaline rush flowing. It is just like the sea and the sky, which appears to meet from long distance yet it doesn’t! Trading is simple math and common sense, a person with the combination of both skills, goes on to mint money sooner or later.
I’ve been thinking as I read everyone’s responses to this question. I do think it’s largely semantics, and I also agree with the statement that LIFE is risk. Every time you get in your car you’re gambling that the person coming the other way isn’t texting or otherwise distracted. We take dozens, perhaps hundreds, of small and large gambles every day we live, and we have no power to influence many of the outcomes.
As for the question at hand: I am Demo trading right now. I have a full time job and a part time job that meet my financial needs (mostly), and I am studying forex out of sheer fascination. It’s an awesome puzzle, like trying to untie an enormous knot in the world’s biggest shoelace. When I do go live, the question will be whether I continue to trade on that basis or whether the rush of having real money at stake will become my driving force. That’s when it would become gambling, at least for me.
Love that expression! I often feel like the fool that has been on a very long errand with nothing to show for it. And then again, I say “that is why the endeavour is one of many Get Rich Slow schemes”. For me, my recent interest in Forex is GRS15 - get rich slow scheme number 15. Never give up, I say. Never give up. By the way, not all of our GRS schemes have failed.
Because it is challenging to follow trading plan you are always tempted to take more risk, try luck by dumb trades, ignore discipline because it is boring. There is a famous quote that says that the biggest of enemy of an in investor is he himself. I fully agree with that.
I believe there is an element of gambling to trading, and vice versa. Both are about placing bets, risk to reward ratios, signals and strategies. The problem with trading, especially considering how super accessible it is to anyone without any training and the unscrupulous industry behind it, is not if it resembles gambling or not, but that it can very easily become an addiction.
At the age of 16, Jesse Livermore quit his job and began trading full-time. He brought $1,000 home to his mother, who disapproved of his “gambling”; he countered that he was not gambling, but “speculating”.
I too prefer the Jesse Livermore definition. He actually says trading can be both gambling or speculation depending if it’s an intelligent play or not.
Id advise everyone to read about the career of Jesse Livermore (and other greats) rather than simply trying to find the most legitimate youtube trading guru.
His story, Reminiscences of a stock operator the single best book ever written about the ups and downs of trading - and not one single chart in the book.
@Johnscott31
Here’s my problem. I’m still practicing the stuff I learned from Pipsology.
I’m not even turning a consistent profit with my strategy yet. Also, I even have a few other investment books that I haven’t read yet, because I don’t want to skip steps. Nor do I want to collect books that I’ll never read.
At what point do I start looking for more information, such as this book?
@Johnscott31
I’m in the US. But, to be honest, I would like to get comfortable trading forex before I start trading other financial instruments. I bought a couple books explaining about several financial instruments. From derivatives to swaps.
I would like to get involved in options also. But, I’ve had a problem in my life of not finishing things—not seeing them to the end.
So, before I start a new venture with other financial instruments, I’d like to get comfortable/profitable with forex.
What do you think?
Also, I want to trade the W1 or the M1 for trades that I can forget about for a while, but such wide SLs limit my lot size. That’s why I sometimes go to the W1 for smaller movements to trade.
However, for short-term trades I’m looking at the D1. These trades could last a week or more. Trading the H4 is too much work for my current schedule. If I can’t find anything on the D1, then I’ll go to the H4 just to get some trades going so I can keep practicing.
Is that what you meant by “what kind of trader do you want to be?”
Well first congrats for taking a longer term timeframe approach - far too many enamoured with the intricacies of day trading - and I think it’s where many come unstuck.
In the US with options you have a lot of options - lol
Options has a number of asset classes from different stock and sector indices, to commodities, ETFs and even bonds.
I say this because I truly believe that limiting yourself to one asset class is a mistake. There are huge swaths of time where one asset class goes no where or where volatility just dries up.
Infact if you had been trading purely fx of the past few months results likely would not have been great because of this
Most currencies are correlated in some way anyway - so trading many pairs isn’t nearly as diversified as you think.
I can appreciate the fear of not completing any one thing, I’m blessed with that skill too!
Only you can plot your skill development but I think a good grounding in price action works across all asset classes, and most timeframes
I plan to add a post or two on weekly timeframe trading on my blog because this timeframe works great with price action, and is often overlooked.
