Can trading be likened to gambling and how so?

[Cling18]

Gambling is mostly based on luck and there's no assurance that you can make a profit after releasing or depositing your funds. It has a huge risk of forfeiting and losing. Just like gambling, trading has also its risks but as long as we're knowledgeable of what we're doing, we can deal with the risks of the market's volatility.
Trading could be learned as well as the technical analysis and strategies that we could apply. It's mostly a skilled base investment and as long as we know how to deal with the market and how to choose potential coins, we can make a profit from it no matter what the market situation is.

[gabbie2010]

Not  really sure where to drop this thread since it's a compendium of gambling and trading as it seeks to make clearer a blur end.
Which is.
Like the game of chance gambling. Can trading in anyway be likened to gambling and how so?

But before you delve in for contributions, let me throw some light below for a better understanding of the idea behind the thread.

Example:
For when we want to gamble, let say in sport football specifically, we look at certain criteria that aid us to a good bet, such as:
1> Head to Head
2> current form of the club and position on the table.
3> The strength of the opponent, etc.

Likewise in trading before we trade we look as certain measures such as:
1> Market trend and direction
2> The price level, market news and some other criteria too.

Now we all know that before going into trading or gambling its advisable to be emotionally stable and to involve a certain sum you're willing to risk etc, all these are similarities shared both in gambling and trading too.

With  these few above I think a clear discussion can well surface to clear the air about a likelihood or not.

Though there are similarities between gambling and trading based on their analytical point of view, however the former is more riskier than the latter, their obvious and sure ways of earning profit consistently in trading for instance in a crypto bullish or bearish market that is well trending experience traders do earn profits based on their vast knowledge of fundamental and technical analysis, however in gambling a lot of upsets can be created, a situation where the undergo defeat a big team thus losing a supposed winning bet is very common especially in soccer bets.

[Sanitough]

Sports betting is not seen by everybody like gambling. Sports betting means an educated guess. Gambling is driven by chance.

And something like this happens with trading too. For some, trading is an educated guess based on TA, news and other stuff. For others it's only based on "gut feeling" (i.e. chance).


So it depends on what you mean by gambling and it depends on which traders you are asking about; I expect those that treat trading like gambling not survive for many years in the business.

Trading and gambling may somewhat be alike because both share risks. However, with trading, your profits rely solely on how you trade using your strategies and skills, if you are a pro trader, the outcome will have more chances to be on your favor. While in gambling, whether in sports betting, slots or lottery, there will always be chance based or luck. And the fact that you're gambling, its mostly the house that takes an edge and wins over the players. Trading may most likely to fall in gambling when you trade without bases and predictions, because in gambling you can't predict anything, everything are just driven by chances or luck. And this is one thing that pro traders should have to avoid to prevent unexpected losses.

[minairia3]

Taking risks and looking for profit are two characteristics that are common to both trading and gambling.

The two are obviously different: with trading, you need knowledge and skills to make a profit, while with gambling, you simply try your luck. The profits and risks that come from gambling will be random and you cannot calculate or analyze. But if you trade without knowledge then you are probably gambling.

[Hamphser]

Taking risks and looking for profit are two characteristics that are common to both trading and gambling.

The two are obviously different: with trading, you need knowledge and skills to make a profit, while with gambling, you simply try your luck. The profits and risks that come from gambling will be random and you cannot calculate or analyze. But if you trade without knowledge then you are probably gambling.

But we know that there are type of gambling games which do also required skills and knowledge like on sports betting and card games but can we consider it out to be on the same risk when we do trades?

No it cant but its on the same set-up or arrangement on how things should really be done or engaged on. Trading could really be ending up like on doing gambling if you havent do anything
or simply guessing out on where prices would go and doesnt really made out some analysis or basis on regarding with your actions.

So if you do tend nor plan to make yourself sustainable on long term then you shouldnt really be that acting like you are gambling whenever you do
make out some trades.

[Jody.Drummer]

Example:
For when we want to gamble, let say in sport football specifically, we look at certain criteria that aid us to a good bet, such as:
1> Head to Head
2> current form of the club and position on the table.
3> The strength of the opponent, etc.

Likewise in trading before we trade we look as certain measures such as:
1> Market trend and direction
2> The price level, market news and some other criteria too.

In my opinion, the example above is still relevant and can be separated into each of its more distinctive characteristics. Rather than out there, there are still many beginners who do not know the trend and direction of the market, filtering news about the market that is not searched for deeper truth still says that their actions are trading. Even in gambling, just bet where he wants, on any club according to his instincts without considering other factors.
So for me, the conclusion is that those who include a combination of trading and gambling are those who rely on instinct when dropping money. That is what confuses the definition of gambling and trading into such an indistinguishable parts.

[Finestream]

Trading can be compared to gambling in the sense that in both of them you basically make 'bets' on the outcome of a certain event at a certain time.
But there is a big difference between the two --> in gambling you are doomed to lose while you can make a good living out of trading, but it takes tremendous amount of work and dedication.

Another important distinction is that in gambling you always know how much you're losing on a single game (you can't lose more than what you bet), while in trading you can get your whole account erased if you don't apply sounds risk management principles.

Trading give us a lot of ways to win and make profits especially with proven skills and strategies, but with gambling whether you are a certified professional gambler or not, losses are still inevitable. That is why if you come to gambling, do not expect too much profits as everyone is doomed to lose and experience defeat. While others are benefiting in gambling maybe because they feel always lucky, but in trading you will only benefit from it using your own knowledge and experience as it gives you more advantage if you have good market analysis and good strategies to overcome the market uncertainties.

[goaldigger]

Taking risks and looking for profit are two characteristics that are common to both trading and gambling.

The two are obviously different: with trading, you need knowledge and skills to make a profit, while with gambling, you simply try your luck. The profits and risks that come from gambling will be random and you cannot calculate or analyze. But if you trade without knowledge then you are probably gambling.

This is a good one to summarize everything, if you do trading you should be more knowledgeable on how it works and that is more about responsible trading but if you do it carelessly and without any analysis, that’s the time you can call it gambling because you depend on luck. Gambling is not bad at all, its risky but if you know how to control yourself then you can be fine. Don’t confuse yourself about trading and gambling, just know where to focus.

[Fatunad]

Taking risks and looking for profit are two characteristics that are common to both trading and gambling.

The two are obviously different: with trading, you need knowledge and skills to make a profit, while with gambling, you simply try your luck. The profits and risks that come from gambling will be random and you cannot calculate or analyze. But if you trade without knowledge then you are probably gambling.

This is a good one to summarize everything, if you do trading you should be more knowledgeable on how it works and that is more about responsible trading but if you do it carelessly and without any analysis, that’s the time you can call it gambling because you depend on luck. Gambling is not bad at all, its risky but if you know how to control yourself then you can be fine. Don’t confuse yourself about trading and gambling, just know where to focus.

We should put up in our mind that there difference between;

Investment
Leisure/Enjoyment time

Both does have risk but the level of risk would be entirely depending on how you've been dealing with it.
We know that gambling is mostly relying on luck which is not that the case on  trading which does need extreme effort and analysis for you to end up profitable.
You could able directly to determine between the two if you do able to experience it for yourself.

[Rufsilf]

You can compare it to gambling and always it happens if you don't have the knowledge about trading. I'd see this as very unusual to think like that as in trading no need to be lucky but rather must have to be strategically wise in doing this.
Though we only have two possible results upon trading (loss and profit), we can also make it more on the gaining side if we are good at this  - strategies and decision-making are changing factors that could affect the results and these are the thing we need to acquire.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Nobody can be professional in gambling, we should not deceive ourselves. There are professionals in trading, if indicators and market are well studied and also using low leverage, trading is better.

Before you say nobody can be a professional at gambling, you first have to under what professionalism is all about and to correct you, we have professional gamblers. Just as many mistake gambling for trading, that's how many mistake sport betting for actual gambling. To understand what gambling is all about, visit your local casino or Vegas as suggested by NeuroticFish. The only football activity that I would consider actual gambling is playing virtual football betting. With this, you don't have to relay on your knowledge of the game but just put in some guess outcome in anticipation of a win. Understand that sport betting is a casual form of gamble. When you want to taste the real deal, you try luck games.

Majority of the modern day traders actually gamble thinking they're trading just as the modern day investors think speculating on multiple coins without any fundamental background check to determine if they're worth investing in is investing. The industry has made it seems like fundamental research don't matter anymore as any crab with the right marketing can pump their way to the tops in the market ranks but don't forget, they'll always crumble down just as Terra Luna, Bitconnect, BCH etc.

[TelolettOm]

Trading is not something that is technical likes gambling which is head-to-head directly. This is more about the indicators and charts of the price, head to head maybe from order book and buy?
But, trading can be said as gambling because when doing trading, someone is doing that without any analysis, they are trading only based on luck when buying the coins at a certain time and then selling them at a certain price. So, they have no exact analysis of when to buy and sell, only based on hype and luck only

[Oshosondy]

Just as many mistake gambling for trading, that's how many mistake sport betting for actual gambling.

If I can remember very well the type of gambling I was addicted to, it was football betting, I only tried tennis few times but bet more on football day to day, taking leagues in Europe, Americas (especially the south America like Brazil), Asia, Australia and even Africa like top league in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. I have bet on in-play matches several times. All I have noticed was that football betting is gambling, there are just different types of gambling.

I was still able to know that if betting horse or dog racing, roulette and other non sport related gambling, I have high risk of losing, but I thought I could analyze if betting on football, I only realized I was deceiving myself when I have lost a lot, losing, trying to make corrections, but yet my money was only going to the gambling sites and I was losing than gaining.

If I analyze, it will be almost similar to what are on prediction sites, I analyzed based on the head-to-head, all matches they have been playing from the beginning, the last five matches played by the two clubs and the likes. But yet I lost a lot of money. On in-play, I used something like goals on target and possession but yet I lost a lot of money.

Football gambling sites are making more money even just with football, that is why you will even see many small leagues on their betting sites and the companies continue to grow.

If I was mindful of all other gambling that they are risky, thinking I can use analyses made me fall into being a football gambling addict for 5 years and some months.

I read a news about a guy that his father sold his only one plot of land just for his son to travel abroad, he travelled, earned around $12500 and returned to the country and started selling cloth, his friend introduced him to gambling and he lost all, maybe he lost to virtual bets but it was on football gambling site. He was arrested because he later become an arm robber.

All are gambling and they are risky. See little odds for big clubs and small odds because bookmakers only try to make all the profit. I am very certain about this that gambling, including football betting or other sport are all still game of luck.

Although, we can all have different opinion about this. This can be a good topic on its own, but definitely, people will choose it to also be gambling, but just telling the difference it has from virtual and other type of betting.

[gunhell16]

Not  really sure where to drop this thread since it's a compendium of gambling and trading as it seeks to make clearer a blur end.
Which is.
Like the game of chance gambling. Can trading in anyway be likened to gambling and how so?

But before you delve in for contributions, let me throw some light below for a better understanding of the idea behind the thread.

Example:
For when we want to gamble, let say in sport football specifically, we look at certain criteria that aid us to a good bet, such as:
1> Head to Head
2> current form of the club and position on the table.
3> The strength of the opponent, etc.

Likewise in trading before we trade we look as certain measures such as:
1> Market trend and direction
2> The price level, market news and some other criteria too.

Now we all know that before going into trading or gambling its advisable to be emotionally stable and to involve a certain sum you're willing to risk etc, all these are similarities shared both in gambling and trading too.

With  these few above I think a clear discussion can well surface to clear the air about a likelihood or not.

You know that in gambling, we really need our emotions, we should not be sensitive to whatever happens while we are playing in a casino, now in cryptocurrency trading, our emotions or feelings cannot be excluded because without them, neither can we. our trading can be done well.

Therefore, the only similarity of Trading to Gambling is the use of our emotions or
feelings but they are very different from each other and not really the same.

[Franctoshi]

Yes ,Trading all most fall in same category with gambling and a trader is regarded as a gambler, in the sense that it involves two parties money the seller and the buyer come together to predict the future price of an asset and gambling also involves same kind of process of prediction, but their is a bit difference between the two,
In trading there is an opportunity for free entry and free exit in the market for adjustment etc ( i.e more of control) , whereas for gambling it's not so, once you've had your bet staked,  likely you do not make changes of your stake after some minutes and have control over it.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Trading and gambling are two different concepts which I see not to be the same, but thou they both involves risk taking, critical thinking, and experience but I still not  see them to be the same. Trading involves giving an item in exchange for the other, which could be money or an asset while gambling involves prediction of a possible outcome of an event, which if it's true you wins but if false, you lose

[TheUltraElite]

Gambling can be broadly divided into EV+ and EV- where the first group needs skills on part of the player therefore skills+luck based and the second is fully luck based.

The easier to play one is the second one and also the more losses there will be. EV+ games needs skills and newbie gamblers who just came in for the rush dont go for them.

Good examples of EV- games are dice, slots, Margin and Futures etc. while Sportbetting, Spot trading come under EV+

To be a good spot trader, you need to observe charts, do a lot of dummy trading and then place orders. Similar in sport betting, where you need to research on the team and their fitness, outcomes from previous games etc.

Any activity can be classified as having positive expected value or negative expected value. So it boils down to what risk you are willing to take. You take the long, toiling route you will likely make some profit while the easy and fun route is full of losses.

[yhiaali3]

Gambling can be likened to trading in one way, and it cannot be likened from another, gambling depends entirely on luck, while trading depends on luck sometimes only. The direction of prices, but sometimes a sudden event happens that changes all these factors in a completely different direction, in this case it can be similar to gambling.
Some people trade in a way that is just like gambling, they buy a coin randomly without any study or analysis and wait for a stroke of luck maybe the coin will rise, this is very similar to gambling.

[hZti]

I don't think trading is the same as gambling, since for gambling you always have only two outcomes. A: You loose 100% B: You win a specific amount. With trading you can "loose" and it could be 1% or 7% or 100% and you can win 1%, 5% or 50000%. So with trading you can still after placing the trade decide how to handle your profits and losses. With gambling after you set your bet there is only luck that decides what your return will be.

[Kelvinid]

Some people trade in a way that is just like gambling, they buy a coin randomly without any study or analysis and wait for a stroke of luck maybe the coin will rise, this is very similar to gambling.

That was a losing style of trading as we can't just rely upon luck as trading doesn't design like that, it was indeed a need of knowledge and skills while gambling only needs money and the basics.

As for me, trading and gambling are far different and we no longer compared them or even argue about them. Note that in gambling we only have a very slim win but in trading, we can possibly get more and our chance is high especially if you have a deep knowledge about this.