Today I visited a friend who is a forex trader, according to him he trades on the USD, gold and BTC and I normally don't fancy the idea of trading because it appears a bit complex for my understanding and from my little knowledge, it seems as though trading is almost same as gambling because at the end of your analysis you're not sure of the outcome of the trade since it's basically a short term adventure and the volatile nature of most traded items depict it to be uncertain with time.
Just so you know, we have people that also find gambling to be very complex not until they familiarize themselves to the world of gambling.
As of the belief that trading is as good as gambling, well let's just say it's somewhat correct because you can't always win when it comes to trading, but you can improve your winning chances by practicing to help formulate a strategy that will help the trader to improve the chances of winning and probably profitable!
My question is, isn't trading almost like gambling considering it uncertainty and also looking from the fact that he has lost a fortune out of trading within a short space of time?
First and foremost, losing is part of trading but this can be countered with a good risk management that will still leave you profitable with the few wins you have...and also the risk to reward matters alot because if you get anything below 1X you can't survive in the long term...Which is why you need to go into demo trading to learn your strategy, perfect your strategy and most importantly protect your capital.
Is it possible for him to easily recover his money back or is losses like that very much a part of the trading experience?
Without a proven strategy that works his doomed!!
And by the way, when it comes to trading risk management and emotions need to be managed well otherwise greed will take the best of you and you will lose money faster than you thought.
