How is trading *not* gambling?

[deisik]

Gambling is a situation involving exactly 50-50 chance of getting either success or failure. Now if you succeed to change 50-50 to even 51-49 through your skills, past experience, knowledge, education, etc. then it no longer remains gambling. It becomes special class of investment called trading which involves speculation about trading items based on skills and knowledge.

It is still gambling, as you don't have 100% control of what's happening. Life on its own, and all the decisions you make, are a gamble. However you can increase your chances of being on the winning stroke while gambling if you do research, get knowledge, know what you are doing, and have a goal and confidence.

This all is missing from the dice gambling, where you are playing against the odds, where no knowledge or skills are required.

So no, trading isn't to be compared with all the casino games, but it surely has a gambling touch to it. It's never risk-free, but is anything in without any risks?

I heavily disagree with this approach

Unless you are the one who can earn guaranteed profits (like I said before, these are arbitrageurs, insiders, exchanges, maybe, some other dudes and their cronies), trading, on a long enough timeframe, is effectively gambling, a gamble where you, an average trader, are inexorably set to lose. How come? Very easily, in fact. If we assume that Bitcoin is a zero-sum game (which it is), all these dudes greedily take away your chances from you, a generic trader, even if little by little, so in the long run you are inevitably left standing and holding the bag, whether you like or not

[naidray]

Gambling is dependent only on luck where as trading is combination of skills and strategies and if you have that then you can make good profits at regular intervals and its much better way of making profits in compare to gambling where the chances of loosing money is too high.

Luck factor work in trading. Just consider you are buying huge number of bitcoin today and suddenly tomorrow bitcoin price increase 500$ means that's the luck factor. Even skill will also provide the way to be away from the scamming attempts.

Your example is not appropriately demonstrating the possibilities of usage of luck factor in trading because buying bitcoin today may possible through some strategy as well through luck. If you are buying bitcoin and not thinking about selling it and then you are getting good profits like $500 may happen even with strategies. I mean to say you are trading altcoin but suddenly to turn your focus into bitcoin and then you are getting $500 profits over night, now you may call the impact of luck in trading.

I agree that luck factor works even with trading, but for that reason calling trading as a type of gambling may not be appropriate imho.

[Angel777]

Trading is to invest your money in bussiness.If you buy the items in low price and trade it with higher price you earn money at a time.
Its not a gambling because u can earn in every items you buy.
Maybe you experience of no income but not at all times.
As you learn the process how to trade you can earn for every transactoin you make.so trading will not count as a gamling.

[silverduck]

Trading is to invest your money in bussiness.If you buy the items in low price and trade it with higher price you earn money at a time.
Its not a gambling because u can earn in every items you buy.
Maybe you experience of no income but not at all times.
As you learn the process how to trade you can earn for every transactoin you make.so trading will not count as a gamling.

People who holds some skills will always prefer to invest their money in trading instead of going for gambling where the chances of making money are too low and no skills or strategies will help you out in gambling as your results will depend only on luck factor.

[amaral1977]

It ceases to be gambling when you try to move the odds a bit in your favor by studying the coins/stocks/assests you are trading as well as the tecnhical indicators. you move the odds in your favor is better than gambling, if you do not succeed and keep moving the ods against you it is worst than gambling.

[Sled]

It ceases to be gambling when you try to move the odds a bit in your favor by studying the coins/stocks/assests you are trading as well as the tecnhical indicators. you move the odds in your favor is better than gambling, if you do not succeed and keep moving the ods against you it is worst than gambling.

Trading is not a gambling because it is predictable and you can get profit by doing a good analysis while in gambling is not applicable. Odds in trading is better than gambling because there is a lot of things that can help you to be sure on making profits like technical analysis and also news that can help you to earn better profits rather than gambling.

[Duzter]

Trading and gambling were the best earning accessibility that users get, but the same has got the highest risk. People prefer trading more than gambling. This is because of an particular reason from my opinion. With trading people just buy and sell gaining profit or loss based on pumping and dumping. With gambling the luck decides our profiting.

[AK47-]

In gambling player doesn't have any edge against competitor whereas in trading person has calculated the edge against competitor. Where gambling is mere game of luck, in trading, you minimize your risk and maximize your profit.

[Pinkris128]

How different is trading from just gambling? I know there seems to be a  big difference with technical analysis and whatnot, but in the end aren't you just betting on something completely random?

Trading is simply exchanger one currency to another currency. It's not a gambling since you didn't put your money at stake that you can lose or win. in the other hand, gambling has only two result, it's either you win or lose. As I gamble, I build speculation in my mind and use my instinct in deciding which bet I should go.

[deisik]

How different is trading from just gambling? I know there seems to be a  big difference with technical analysis and whatnot, but in the end aren't you just betting on something completely random?

Trading is simply exchanger one currency to another currency. It's not a gambling since you didn't put your money at stake that you can lose or win. in the other hand, gambling has only two result, it's either you win or lose. As I gamble, I build speculation in my mind and use my instinct in deciding which bet I should go.

I guess this is farther from truth that you may think

Trading is certainly not just an exchange of one currency for another currency as you innocently assume. It is an exchange which aims specifically at earning profits via a sequence of such exchanges (known as "buy low, sell high"). And since you can either lose or earn as a result of this process, you still have to face the same dilemma as in gambling, i.e. "it's either you win or lose"

[Fatanut]

How different is trading from just gambling? I know there seems to be a  big difference with technical analysis and whatnot, but in the end aren't you just betting on something completely random?

Trading is simply exchanger one currency to another currency. It's not a gambling since you didn't put your money at stake that you can lose or win. in the other hand, gambling has only two result, it's either you win or lose. As I gamble, I build speculation in my mind and use my instinct in deciding which bet I should go.

Uhmm. Actually, it's almost like gambling. Have you tried trading anything? Once you bought a coin, you're basically just waiting for your fate if you're going to earn or not. Same as gambling, there's only two results in trading (and all other investment types), you either win or you lose.

Trading is not just exchanging a currency to another. You have to do it in a way that you'll earn money. Simply converting without any plan or without any effort on studying the market is purely a gamble since you're basically just converting and converting money with just random luck that it will yield profit when you converted.

[gabbie2010]

Trading is absolutely different from gambling in trading a trader  will learn the fundamental and technical aspects of trading. A seasoned trader uses japanese candlestick pattern to accurately predict price movement although some losses might accrued  notwithstanding it is  far better than gambling which is 50:50.

[joganuts]

How different is trading from just gambling? I know there seems to be a  big difference with technical analysis and whatnot, but in the end aren't you just betting on something completely random?

Trading is simply exchanger one currency to another currency. It's not a gambling since you didn't put your money at stake that you can lose or win. in the other hand, gambling has only two result, it's either you win or lose. As I gamble, I build speculation in my mind and use my instinct in deciding which bet I should go.

Uhmm. Actually, it's almost like gambling. Have you tried trading anything? Once you bought a coin, you're basically just waiting for your fate if you're going to earn or not. Same as gambling, there's only two results in trading (and all other investment types), you either win or you lose.

Trading is not just exchanging a currency to another. You have to do it in a way that you'll earn money. Simply converting without any plan or without any effort on studying the market is purely a gamble since you're basically just converting and converting money with just random luck that it will yield profit when you converted.

You're so confusing. Your statements disagree to each other. As you said that trading is exchanging of one currency into another currency and it must be done with plan or studying, then it's not like gambling anymore. The concept of gambling is to make a bet, which in trading we don't make a bet.

[MFahad]

Trading and gambling were the best earning accessibility that users get, but the same has got the highest risk. People prefer trading more than gambling. This is because of an particular reason from my opinion. With trading people just buy and sell gaining profit or loss based on pumping and dumping. With gambling the luck decides our profiting.

Yes, you are giving valid reasons, only one thing between same and that is Risk.
And also it is true, people prefer trading than gambling, Even every gambler prefer trading than gambling.
Also it has mean no one think that trading and gambling same thing.
But in trading our coins on our hand and we can adjust our lose into our profit.
But in gambling, if we lose than its mean, we have lose, no chance to recover the lose.

[Ewox]

Maybe trading is like gambling because you are betting on coins randomly and both are risky, I think the only difference is that in trading if you'll lose on that certain coin you are not entirely on loss because if you'll hold it for a couple of months or if you want years surely it'll profit (not unless if the coin will be diminished) anyways its just an example. Whereas in gambling, once you bet all of your BTC and you lost on that bet, you can't get your BTC back.

[lienfaye]

Maybe trading is like gambling because you are betting on coins randomly and both are risky, I think the only difference is that in trading if you'll lose on that certain coin you are not entirely on loss because if you'll hold it for a couple of months or if you want years surely it'll profit (not unless if the coin will be diminished) anyways its just an example. Whereas in gambling, once you bet all of your BTC and you lost on that bet, you can't get your BTC back.

Right, although both is risky there is difference between the two, for me trading is way better than to gamble your money, in trading you are the one to decide where you want to invest your money, you can choose what coins and you can somehow predict if it has potential to hold while in gambling its about luck no assurance of winning.

[Deluzi]

Trading is gambling if you go in to trading with no research... So please don't gamble, except if you want to. lol

I wish you good luck, to everybody, traders and gamblers

[BisonPoint]

I think you are asking if they are technically the same,
in regard that you are betting on certain outcome,
and the answer to this question is YES.

But here's the difference, explained in simplest way possible:

-When you go to casino, you are gambling, because the house
have mathematical edge over you, and in the long run it is impossible
for you to win - that is why they are doing everything in their power
to keep you playing as longest they can.

-On the other hand, the house, you may say is taking bet (or trade) against you,
and because they have mathematical edge in every game they are not gambling - they are trading.

On market, people who make money are trading, others gamble,
and former ones are calling them pigs, because they come to get (financially) slaughtered.

[Stavri]

Trading is gambling if you are newbie 

[deisik]

I think you are asking if they are technically the same,
in regard that you are betting on certain outcome,
and the answer to this question is YES.

But here's the difference, explained in simplest way possible:

-When you go to casino, you are gambling, because the house
have mathematical edge over you, and in the long run it is impossible
for you to win - that is why they are doing everything in their power
to keep you playing as longest they can.

-On the other hand, the house, you may say is taking bet (or trade) against you,
and because they have mathematical edge in every game they are not gambling - they are trading.

On market, people who make money are trading, others gamble,
and former ones are calling them pigs, because they come to get (financially) slaughtered.

Yeah, bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered

That said, casinos (if we talk about more or less honest casinos, of course) don't distinguish between experienced gamblers and novice ones. No matter how skillful you are (if the notion of skill is ever applicable to dice games), you will face the same house edge. In trading and still more so in Bitcoin trading (which is essentially a zero-sum game as I said before), experienced traders and still more so those who are able to milk the market in one way or another necessarily take away chances from generic folks (since it is a zero-sum game), and the latter might have to face what could be loosely called a "house edge" by far exceeding that of a typical casino. Novice traders should never forget this nasty side of trading (and Bitcoin trading specifically)