So I've been hearing people say they want to get into trading, especially folks with regular 9-to-5 jobs doing it on the side without really knowing what trading crypto or forex actually means.
I was chatting with a friend who thinks forex trading (and crypto futures too) is just gambling. I asked him why he feels that way. He shared this story about his uncle, who's really into betting on football and apparently has an impressive track record with his predictions. When he visited, he saw all the gear his uncle had set up, like multiple computers and charts that were pretty much like forex charts. His uncle was analyzing loads of data to make these predictions, and just like with forex, some methods were more reliable than others. I started to think, maybe he's onto something here. Placing a trade feels a lot like betting on whether buyers or sellers will come out on top.
Then I looked into what gambling really means. It’s about taking risks for possible gains, and the key here is that these gains are just anticipated, not guaranteed. So, when you trade, you're doing something similar. It got me wondering... if that's the case, isn’t life itself kind of like a gamble? But then, another definition of gambling hit me: risking money for a potential cash reward. That definitely feels close to how sports betting works.
Is trading crypto and Forex an investment or just gambling
19 replies 465 views
Thinking of trading as an investment itself is the wrong approach, instead it should be seen as investing in yourself because youre the one working the success of your future. For someone working a 9-to-5 job is likely to struggle if they dont take the time to study the market and understand trading as a whole. In other words, they might not fully grasp what crypto trading really involves, and that lack of knowledge often leads to failure.
However, their interest could still pave the way for success later on. Failing early doesnt mean the journey is over, what truly matters is whether they learn from their mistakes and refine their strategy, so with the right mindset, they still have a shot at making it.
Although there are some differences between trading and gambling, they are literally the same. The difference between gambling and trading is the control of the chances of winning. As a trader, you can control the chances of winning with your experience while trading. But can you control the chances of winning in gambling? Can you increase your chances of winning with your experience? But the chances of winning in trading completely depend on how experienced you are in trading. If you are an experienced and skilled trader, your chances of winning are much higher, if you are inexperienced, your chances of losing are higher. But in gambling, you can never increase your chances of winning by the sake of experience. You have to depend on luck to win. Maybe with experience you can take the right steps but the win-loss will completely determine your fate.
The relationship between trading and gambling is dependence on luck. Although you can increase your chances of winning with experience in trading, you have to depend on luck to win as we see in the case of gambling. Even in trading and gambling, where there is high risk, the chances of losing your money are high.
CryptoDefiMember
Posts: 22 · Reputation: 236
#4Mar 6, 2023, 01:30 AM
Surely, mistakes and failures are both crucial and unavoidable aspects of either trading or investments. And this is the mistake or misconceptions that many people in this sphere often have, especially the newbies. Some of them often have this perspective of trading or investment as a way to earn money without any losses, possibly because they got the idea from the contents or information they see online or what someone told them, and without doing their own research they delve in, and when they encounter some losses, they feel discouraged and maybe turn back rather than learning from their mistakes and failures to gain better experience in the field.
chris.deg3nFull Member
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#5Mar 6, 2023, 06:18 AM
Trading and gambling posses the same risk then you are betting your money then speculate for certain growth so there's similarity if towards how things goes with those two comparison so expect people will say that its the same and I don't disagree with them for saying that.
But if you mean to HODL bitcoin and frequently buying it for long term purposes then with that for sure there would be no people will disagree here that this is investment since you don't deal with anything short term risk and you are there saving more volumes for future used.
quantumbearHero Member
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#6Mar 7, 2023, 12:43 PM
Trading and investment are not the same thing. But that is if you invest on good assets like gold and bitcoin and not shit assets like altcoins.
Trading is riskier and the loss can be similar to gambling. It requires more knowledge and experience before you can be able to make money from it.
If you invest on good asset like gold and bitcoin at the right time, you will make money if you are patient about it.
Trading has a distinct definition. Strictly speaking, it is neither an investment nor gambling. Trading is more or less short-term. It can be compared more with speculation than investment because you're buying and selling according to short-term movements of the price rather than the long-term appreciation of an asset. There's an element of gambling in it, of course, but it is unlike gambling in the strict sense because you're not betting based on luck.
Trade and gambling have similar features, to some extend trade is far better compared to gambling firstly its all about bet and profit but, understanding trade makes it more easier for anyone to earn likewise gambling. Investing is more better and we can clearly see investors choosing investing for a longer profit, trade is definitely risky and it has to do with analyzing the different strategy, for clarity purpose both are far different.
Another similarity between trade and gambling is that both of them are risky. But gambling is riskier which is why it is important to gamble with little funds. Traders can accurately predict how the market will turn out but in gambling especially slots are unpredictable. There are many indicators that can determine trading outcomes but it is rare to predict gambling outcomes even in sports betting.
Another important consideration is that trading requires some level of skills while gambling can be engaged by even a newbie. But it doesn't erase the fact that gambling also requires skills.
Gambling sure do need skills if you want to be successful true
Ok true, you need lick, true, but you can also increase your chances of winning with experience too, the truth is, if you have enough data and solid analysis, you can always increase your chances of winning in gambling of course coupled with the right analysis, this is true and proven.
Of course.....HODLing is certainly an investment, but this type of investment is directly proportional to your capital, I guess the lower the risk, the lower the profit.
So you're tryna say trading is a complete no no? I mean I do hear stories about successful traders though, I've also heard stories about successful gamblers but it's not as much successful as traders. In all are u saying trading will definitely bring loss?
mr_satoshiSenior Member
Posts: 305 · Reputation: 1629
#11Mar 11, 2023, 02:18 AM
The investment that people talk about in crypto and forex is the investment in the skill, which is something that if you take your time to invest to gain knowledge, you are profitable for life. With that reasoning, you should know that considering it a gamble should be off the table. There is a level of knowledge that, when acquired, will greatly increase your chances of being successful each time you trade. That is not the same for casino games where a gambler plays against the house, and regardless of the skill they possess, there is still a lot of room for chance and luck to play a role for them to be able to win the house.
it's game of speculation, any analysis is there to increase your odd and make you confident, i mean, what in this world that doesn't involve speculation?
you can invest in the most safest hedge against inflation which is gold, but doesn't mean you're not gonna lose your capital due to price volatility which still exist despite gold being named as the most stable hedge against inflation asset.
even investing in a company with clear product and fundamental doesn't necessarily guarantee you gonna make big profit, the company can just went under within few years and you lost your money.
I'd say, everything in this world has risk and thus I call everything involving making money as speculation.
First of all, only those who don't understand the financial market would say trading is gambling. As someone who has done both I can tell you that there's a Big difference between them. As a trader it's possible for you to take some steps that can be seen as gambling, when you increase your lot size to an extremely high amount, not trading on stop loss, and trading against the trend. These are things that are refered to as gambling in trading. But when you become an expert and disciplined trader you work on having targets and reducing the risks involved. The financial market is a school of learning and it works based on how knowledgeable and experienced you are unlike gambling.
Actually for those people who done they are job from 9 to 5, I think those shouldn't goes for the trading, it also depend on their job because if they don't get much amount from their job they can make hard work and after learning the technical analysis, the fundamental analysis and the money Management and the emotional control on market they can do trade but if they do try the trading before that it might be high possibility of failure.
I think there should not go for the day trader and if they want to go for investment, I think they should invest on the bitcoin by making the DCA with the regular and for the long-term. To be honest it shouldn't seen as investment it should be seen as a saving against the inflations.
I reckon it's just a difference of how you'd define gambling is? In general I don't think sports betting is gambling, hence why I call it a bet. It can BE a gamble, but it doesn't have to be one. What your uncle did was exactly that, and the same thing could be done in trading imo. Gambling on the other hand? I define that as relying completely on luck, gut, or whatever the hell you want to describe it with. Like full on ofc, imo even betting has that bit of gut in part of it but it's never really used as a reference alone, unlike gambling.
And yes, trading and investing would definitely be different. I'd probably recommend for people who have a 9-5 to just invest than trade.
To be successful in trading, you need to have a competitive advantage over other players. If you do not have this competitive advantage, then your trading is just gambling.
What competitive advantages can there be in trading? You can invest in a digital asset at an early stage (this is similar to buying real estate at the zero cycle, at the foundation stage). However, it should be noted that at present, it is very difficult for an ordinary person to invest in a digital asset at the zero cycle. Specialized funds are systematically engaged in the acquisition of such assets (they have large funds, expert experience, access to confidential information). That is, they have a competitive advantage in this situation.
A competitive advantage can be speed, for example, some super-powerful computers that will allow you to make transactions faster than others. However, there are serious doubts that an ordinary person, an ordinary trader, has access to such computing equipment.
Also, in some cases, expertise in certain areas of entrepreneurial activity can serve as a competitive advantage if we are talking about a business located in remote regions. If you know a lot more about something than other people, then that can be considered a competitive advantage.
In my opinion, most traders do not have any competitive advantages. And what they call trading experience is just an illusion.
These set of people are the ones that ends up getting themselves trapped in a scam situations because they are ignorant waiting on someone or a third party platforms to trade for them. They think trading is about giving your funds expert trader to get them a return daily, weekly or depending on the agreed percentage.
Hey bro, it doesn't work that way tbh, no matter the category of your jobs, you ought to be disciplined and understand what investment and trading all about, that's a top tier habits to develop towards anything investment because that's your pride and never to be taken unserious.
It seems like you are explaining something different from what you quoted above. The group in question is those who try to trade without being equipped with good knowledge and they make trading as a side job. The scheme you describe is certainly different, but it has happened everywhere because of people's greed and lack of knowledge.
There is a lot of knowledge available online today about trading, they can learn it. The main problem is that some people are tempted by the profits that other people get from trading, but they are lazy to learn. When they start doing it themselves, then it's almost like gambling because they don't do anything because maybe they will buy randomly.
SilentBullFull Member
Posts: 116 · Reputation: 793
#19Mar 17, 2023, 08:07 AM
Before answering the question from this title, you should already know that trading with investment is a different activity.
Investing starts with buying the same as trading but in investment you will not immediately sell when you see the asset going up because the goal is long term so you can continue to buy and save even though the price goes up, while trading you will sell when you have profit and buy back at a low price to get profit again at a high price.
Trading and investment are not gambling unless you start it without skills or even continue to do it without trying to have skills or improve skills because you depend on news or signals.
You're only analyzing that based on semantics and it's a wrong way to go about it. If only you can look at it from the angle that in gambling, the anticipation isn't based on any product to be exchanged. Nothing of that nature. With trading, there's an anticipation based on one product price going up while the other is coming down. There's actually buying and selling going on.
Life is a risk, not gambling. You've to know that not all risky activity is gambling.
Life is thought to be risky because no one truly can say what happens next each time they sleep off, cross the road, drive out, go shopping, drop kids off school etc. Anything we can predetermine its outcome isn't risky. But in all that, we haven't gambled doing any of the above.
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