Is this a gamble or a trade ? The clear test that works

[Kelvinid]

Not all lost trades are useful as they seem. They will only be useful if traders learn from them, as losses can be a crucial part of becoming a profitable trader. But as much as possible, do not tolerate yourself trading at a loss, because there are always means to to minimize losing from trading, if not avoiding it completely.

If you enter trading with a prepared mind and body, meaning you are a well equipped trader, emotionally, mentally and psychologically, trading like gambling can always be avoided. But if you decide to trade all for the sake of instant money, without long term preparation, and just rely on luck and chances, then the chances to lose your trades and regret why you enter trading are more possible to happen than expecting yourself to be a profitable and satisfied trader.

[IjawMan]

Not all lost trades are useful as they seem. They will only be useful if traders learn from them, as losses can be a crucial part of becoming a profitable trader. But as much as possible, do not tolerate yourself trading at a loss, because there are always means to to minimize losing from trading, if not avoiding it completely.

If you enter trading with a prepared mind and body, meaning you are a well equipped trader, emotionally, mentally and psychologically, trading like gambling can always be avoided. But if you decide to trade all for the sake of instant money, without long term preparation, and just rely on luck and chances, then the chances to lose your trades and regret why you enter trading are more possible to happen than expecting yourself to be a profitable and satisfied trader.

Not all losses in trading are knowledge imparting for there are losses that can deter the trader from the zeal of trading any more.

I have a contemporary that was caught in this similar situation of long losses and he did not fin it funny any more as it was mirroring like in the beginning. When the losses became much he did not saw any enthusiasm to learn a thing from it further. He just quitted trading since he was not making profiting as he had in anticipation.

What I see about part of preparation in the early stage of a trader is dependent much on his perspective on trade. What was he told trading is exactly .  Cause much of what you will read online about influencers traders is only how they are making profits from trading and no one dares to share their many times losses to equal the perspectives for young mind traders.

[slaman29]

That's something fresh, and I can totally get on with this idea. I recognized this in myself long ago even before Bitcoin trading (forex). At first I entered with small capital and even losing, yes there was a bit of disappointment but much more excitement because like you said: you tested hypothesis and strategies on a live market and you learned lessons + tweaked strategies. I was really active on local forums sharing and everyone tweaking each other.

Once I was regretting and chasing I saw I was gambling. Stopped.

Restarted with crypto, and same thing, really. Especially altcoin season, just buying dips and rebuying and eventually losing. No learning feeling, pure regret. And that made me quit for good.

Have to say, however, I've witnessed gamblers who lose without emotion. The regret is not even there, they only feel it right at the end when they're deep in debt, lost their jobs, etc.

[justdimin]

A loss is a loss, and he accepts that too. The fact that supports it is that he accepts the end results. He knows when he is gambling and loses, he feels terrible, but when he trades and loses, he knows he must have done something wrong, so he will try to find that out, like most of us. And once he finds it, he will obviously remove that mistake to make his trading experience better next time.

I think the test he wants to share is not that bad, but it might not work for everyone because not every trader is a gambler. Gambling addiction can ruin someone's life. There is a line that no gambler should cross, but that line also exists for traders. If a trader is using all of his resources, like selling things, taking loans, and making his life worse by trading and losing again and again, then that trader needs to stop and definitely feel bad because they are losing money.

The difference is that, when you are gambling and losing, that is what suppose to happen. The whole idea of casinos existing is because people go to casinos and lose money, there is nothing shocking about losing money at a casino and that is the expected result. Compared to that, you could lose money while trading, but you do not have to, it is not the expected result, it is not because trading makes you lose money at all times, you could make money if you do it right. Knowing this difference, people could have different reactions.

I would feel the same, if I lose money at gambling, which I sometimes do, I am not shocked and I expected that, but if I ever lose at trading, which I sometimes do that too, then I would know that it's possible that I could have done better.

[LastKiss]

If I gamble and I lose, I will feel terrible. Because I have lost valuable resources for nothing.
If I trade/invest and I lose, I will feel good. Because I know and feel that the lost trade that I have made using all my resources in the best possible way I was able - that this lost trade is a valuable asset from what I and others can learn much. A lost trade is as interesting and useful as a negative result in science (hypothesis that is proved to be false).

So whenever you lose and feel terrible you call it gambling and whenever you feel good you call it trading or investing. I think that might only work for you but personally, every time I lose a trade it doesn’t make me feel good especially when my strategy fails consecutively. Trading and gambling are definitely different, but thinking the emotions will also be different when losing isn’t right, at least for me.

[Alpen]

I have a very clear test that works 100% (at least for me) for making sure am I gambling or trading at the moment.

If I gamble and I lose, I will feel terrible. Because I have lost valuable resources for nothing.
If I trade/invest and I lose, I will feel good. Because I know and feel that the lost trade that I have made using all my resources in the best possible way I was able - that this lost trade is a valuable asset from what I and others can learn much. A lost trade is as interesting and useful as a negative result in science (hypothesis that is proved to be false).



(I have not gambled in markets long time because it is relatively easy to be fully aware for avoiding it some minutes or hours I am behind my trading desk. I have gambled occasionally in everyday situations (for example in traffic) when I lose my awareness - is is difficult to be 24/7 fully aware).

There is no inherent need to lose in the crypto market. At least, that’s the approach I’ve taken, and it relies on a few simple truths.

First, Bitcoin is cyclical. We know it tends to drop for 6 to 12 months following a halving; the rest of the time, the trend is upward. If you trade long-only, there’s often no need to close losing positions—they eventually turn green.

Second, we know the floor of any crypto winter: it’s when the price approaches the mining production cost. That’s the time for major entries, creating a foundation that allows for profitable averaging in future investments.

When I want to speculate with leverage, I use an amount equal to 20% of my TRX holdings. Since my TRX is staked on Cryptomus at a 20% APY, even a total loss on derivatives technically costs me nothing—the rewards cover it.

I don't need the "valuable experience" of losing trades. No technical indicator can predict a bombing in Iran, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, or the political whims of world leaders. We live in a time where the bad mood of a dictator can wreck the global economy, but Bitcoin is what preserves capital in that chaos

[Rabata]

If I gamble and I lose, I will feel terrible. Because I have lost valuable resources for nothing.
If I trade/invest and I lose, I will feel good. Because I know and feel that the lost trade that I have made using all my resources in the best possible way I was able - that this lost trade is a valuable asset from what I and others can learn much. A lost trade is as interesting and useful as a negative result in science (hypothesis that is proved to be false).

Trading and gambling both have negative impacts on losing money wherever there is a loss. When a gambler loses money, he has to accept it as luck. None of his strategies are of much use. If he loses, nothing can be learned from it. But in trading, if he loses, there is a lot to learn. That is, if there is a loss in trading, there is definitely a scope to console the mind. When I lose money in trading, I think I made a mistake, I try to learn from that mistake. What strategy should I have used, why did I lose there, etc., observing the issues may bring some benefit to the business, but there is no such opportunity in gambling. If luck does not favor me when I place a bet, then there is nothing left except regret.

[maydna]

What test that works for you, mind you telling us?

But trading is difficult and only small people who can trade and profit, others losing money and difficult to recover their loss. If they don't analyzing the market, they gambling and the risk of losing money will be bigger.

If you just rely on the signal, you still gambling as no guarantee you can profit. Trading without having proper knowledge will almost the same as gambling so you need to be careful and always doing analysis before you trade.

If I just guess where the price will be, I am gamble and I can't expect to make a profit. But if I analyze, my chance to profit will be there.

[M47AK16]

That's something fresh, and I can totally get on with this idea. I recognized this in myself long ago even before Bitcoin trading (forex). At first I entered with small capital and even losing, yes there was a bit of disappointment but much more excitement because like you said: you tested hypothesis and strategies on a live market and you learned lessons + tweaked strategies. I was really active on local forums sharing and everyone tweaking each other.

Once I was regretting and chasing I saw I was gambling. Stopped.

Restarted with crypto, and same thing, really. Especially altcoin season, just buying dips and rebuying and eventually losing. No learning feeling, pure regret. And that made me quit for good.

Have to say, however, I've witnessed gamblers who lose without emotion. The regret is not even there, they only feel it right at the end when they're deep in debt, lost their jobs, etc.

While this is true, not everyone has a lot of money and that means people who are dealing with this for the first time and do not have money, may end up losing and never coming back. That is not our problem and that doesn't mean trading doesn't work, of course there could be a lot of people who would make some money from it but that doesn't mean that you are going to end up making money right away, in fact most of the time people end up losing money when they are first starting out in the crypto world as well.

But that doesn't mean that this will be something that they will understand clearly, if they are newbies and do not have a lot of capital then the first time they end up losing money they are going to stop and not come back, not all of them but some of them will leave for good.

[Roseline492]

When a gambler loses money, he has to accept it as luck. None of his strategies are of much use. If he loses, nothing can be learned from it. But in trading, if he loses, there is a lot to learn. That is, if there is a loss in trading, there is definitely a scope to console the mind. When I lose money in trading, I think I made a mistake, I try to learn from that mistake. What strategy should I have used, why did I lose there, etc., observing the issues may bring some benefit to the business, but there is no such opportunity in gambling. If luck does not favor me when I place a bet, then there is nothing left except regret.

Gambling might not have the learning opportunities of trading but however the trading that some persons are able to learn, how well have they learn from there losses and go back with a different style to stop losing?, so actually with all those learning most traders still comes back to the previous thing that made them to loss. Even if some uncertain factors has convinced us that gambling is not something to learn as the trading but some persons still believe with fact that you can also learn gambling the way you are learning trading because when you loss in trading and you start thinking about were the mistake could have come from, is also what a gambler would do to learn about different gambling way even if is not certain.

[nara1892]

I'll simply conclude that what made the OP respond to the two losses differently was that he learned a lesson in trading, even though he lost money. But that doesn't mean you should be happy about the situation. Essentially, we don't have to experience it ourselves to learn. There are many stories and experiences from others that we can learn from without having to experience it ourselves.
Don't get involved in trading to lose, because clearly, we all come here with the goal of making a profit.

[slaman29]

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Have to say, however, I've witnessed gamblers who lose without emotion. The regret is not even there, they only feel it right at the end when they're deep in debt, lost their jobs, etc.

While this is true, not everyone has a lot of money and that means people who are dealing with this for the first time and do not have money, may end up losing and never coming back. That is not our problem and that doesn't mean trading doesn't work, of course there could be a lot of people who would make some money from it but that doesn't mean that you are going to end up making money right away, in fact most of the time people end up losing money when they are first starting out in the crypto world as well.

But that doesn't mean that this will be something that they will understand clearly, if they are newbies and do not have a lot of capital then the first time they end up losing money they are going to stop and not come back, not all of them but some of them will leave for good.

Then we're dealing again with a very different class of people, who're looking for a quick buck (and in essence already coming into the trade with a gambling mindset). So that's not really relevant to the discussion, which discusses if a supposed trade is really backed by analysis or a gamble.

To me it doesn't even matter if people are newbies or not. You can see the same old psychology and thinking in a first-time trader and a 10-year 'trader'. The degenerate gambler does not mature

[Webetcoins]

The difference in mindset is very important. Educating yourself with your losses is something that not many can do because they do not know analysis.

If you knew analysis and how to do it then you would look at any given loss and you would be able to learn something from it, but if you do not know analysis then you would look at it and it would mean nothing to you. Gambling is not like that, you can't just look at a loss and see what went wrong, it's betting, you were wrong, it's that simple.

[YOSHIE]

I have a very clear test that works 100% (at least for me) for making sure am I gambling or trading at the moment.

I'm quite sick of hearing that trading is equated with gambling, I think that if there are individuals who think like that, it means they are fooling themselves.

Trading clearly deals with the crypto assets being traded and also relates to Technical & Fundamental Analysis, spot, margin, futures, Volatility, charts and so on.
While gambling is a game that needs to be played without being able to see what is being played, remember that although crypto trading and gambling both make a profit, they are two different things.

[bitgolden]

The difference in mindset is very important. Educating yourself with your losses is something that not many can do because they do not know analysis.

If you knew analysis and how to do it then you would look at any given loss and you would be able to learn something from it, but if you do not know analysis then you would look at it and it would mean nothing to you. Gambling is not like that, you can't just look at a loss and see what went wrong, it's betting, you were wrong, it's that simple.

Yeah, we are talking about literally the difference between a thing that was designed to make you lose, versus a thing that you may lose or may not lose depending on how good you are.

At gambling there is no "good" gambler, you may get lucky, but you are not good, nobody is good, you are either lucky or unlucky. But with trading you can learn to do better and you could earn, specially with the way you said, if you study your losses and learn from them, that is very important.

[Jaweria parveen]

The difference in mindset is very important. Educating yourself with your losses is something that not many can do because they do not know analysis.

If you knew analysis and how to do it then you would look at any given loss and you would be able to learn something from it, but if you do not know analysis then you would look at it and it would mean nothing to you. Gambling is not like that, you can't just look at a loss and see what went wrong, it's betting, you were wrong, it's that simple.

That is why we should be patient and wise in trading, if we put pressure on ourselves in trading, we will not be able to understand the principles of the market. However, if we are heading towards loss, we should know how to move the market by understanding it so that we get profit and our loss is also eliminated. This is the first thing in trading that makes it easy for us to trade because when we do not know how to make profit in the market, we will lose in every trade and we will lose our money in the same way. When we know that we are understanding the market even in loss by analyzing in this way, then our experience is quite high and we can work by understanding the market. When a person thinks before going into the market that we can control the market and take profit, but the market knows our understanding, therefore we should analyze separately at different times, with this we can easily succeed in the market and there will be no loss.

[Lembo69]

I never support gambling because gambling only brings people losses and never profits. Gambling is like a terrible disease, once caught, the addiction to gambling does not stop until it is over. A wise person never fights fate, a wise person is one who tries to make fate better with his knowledge.

A wise person tries to use his knowledge and honesty. And wise people will definitely survive trading. The reason for this is that he knows when the market price goes up and down. He will trade using his knowledge. If he loses, he will learn, if he gets up later, he will still survive trading. Because he values ​​his knowledge. In the end, a trader wins because he uses his knowledge

[Hamza2424]

If I gamble and I lose, I will feel terrible. Because I have lost valuable resources for nothing.
If I trade/invest and I lose, I will feel good. Because I know and feel that the lost trade that I have made using all my resources in the best possible way I was able - that this lost trade is a valuable asset from what I and others can learn much. A lost trade is as interesting and useful as a negative result in science (hypothesis that is proved to be false)

Bro, you do not need to test this based on your feelings. It does not require testing. Anyone with some sense and knowledge of the difference can tell whether it is gambling or trading.

What if you are trading and still lose? You might feel terrible even after doing everything, like analyzing the market and drawing every pattern you could think of, and still end up in a loss.

What would you do in that situation? Would you call it gambling, or would you still consider it trading just because you believe you know where you went wrong? That is not a good way to judge it, and it could end up costing you a lot of money.

[Alphakilo]

I never support gambling because gambling only brings people losses and never profits. Gambling is like a terrible disease, once caught, the addiction to gambling does not stop until it is over. A wise person never fights fate, a wise person is one who tries to make fate better with his knowledge.

A wise person tries to use his knowledge and honesty. And wise people will definitely survive trading. The reason for this is that he knows when the market price goes up and down. He will trade using his knowledge. If he loses, he will learn, if he gets up later, he will still survive trading. Because he values ​​his knowledge. In the end, a trader wins because he uses his knowledge

Not just knowledge is enough with trading, you got to know how to apply different strategies to know which works best. It isn't like gambling in this regard when the house edge stands to make you frustrated no matter the style you approach your gamble activities for the day with.
Trading may demand more time to focus and understand how the market moves in order to better predict it's movement and you must be attentive to world news because speculation alone affects the trend and movement of a trade more than it does gambling.

[Finebone]

Not just knowledge is enough with trading, you got to know how to apply different strategies to know which works best. It isn't like gambling in this regard when the house edge stands to make you frustrated no matter the style you approach your gamble activities for the day with.
Trading may demand more time to focus and understand how the market moves in order to better predict it's movement and you must be attentive to world news because speculation alone affects the trend and movement of a trade more than it does gambling.

Gambling and trading are two different things that has one thing in common, which is frequent losing, but why most people will prefer gambling over trading is that it's not as stressful mentally as trading, and it's more easier to make money in gambling if you specialize on sport betting than trading that you need to be perfect in not just in technical and fundamental analysis, be patient to take only the right set up, and be also good in managing your risk, without doing all this perfectly well simultaneously, you stand no chance of being profitable, unlike gambling that doesn't mess with your mental health, and you can go home smiling just by being lucky on the day.
So trading is not as easy as most traders are making it looks like, because it's the most difficult craft that can fetch you a lot of money.