Can you explain the difference between gambling and investing? Thanks in advance.
Thank you for your e-mail and question about the differences between gambling and investing. There are a number of Christian authors who have addressed this issue (Norm Geisler, Tony Evans, Gary North, etc.).
Differences Between Forex Trading and Gambling Numerous attempts have been made to simplify trading in the forex marke t, and while a degree of success has been achieved in this area, trading forex is more than installing a trading platform, funding an account and clicking a. Oct 28, 2015 Investing or Gambling, What’s The Difference? Peter Lynch once said, “When people discover they are no good at baseball or hockey, they put away their bats and their skates and they take up amateur golf or stamp collecting or gardening. But when people discover they are no good at picking stocks, they are likely to continue to do it anyway.”. Jun 18, 2008 Can you explain the difference between gambling and investing? Thanks in advance. Thank you for your e-mail and question about the differences between gambling and investing. There are a number of Christian authors who have addressed this.
Briefly let me say that there are some similarities, and there are people who get addicted to high risk investing just like gambling. So I would acknowledge there are some similarities between the two.
But the key issue is that there are some striking differences. Investors research an investment with the goal of lowering the risks and making a wise investment. Gambling is all about risk and the odds cannot be lowered by further research (except for those who can modify the odds of blackjack by card counting or something like that).
The goal of investing is to build up a company and portfolio. Even if it’s done selfishly, it still can have a positive effect on the company and the economy. Gambling takes money out of the capital economy. It doesn’t contribute to job creation, etc. As I argue in my transcript on gambling, gambling actually hurts a local economy and increases social costs (abuse, neglect, bankruptcy).
Most investing is done with discretionary income and with certain limits (amount of stock that can be bought on margin, debt load allowed by a lender, etc.). Most gambling is not done with discretionary income. Money that should go for food, rent, clothing is often risked in a “get-rich-quick” scheme.
So while I would acknowledge that investing and gambling have some similarities, the differences make the difference. If you are interested, I would encourage you to read some additional material by some of the authors I mentioned.
Thanks for writing.
Kerby Anderson
Probe Ministries
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Day trading is a cousin to both investing and gambling, but it is not the same as either. Day trading involves quick reactions to the markets, not a long-term consideration of all the factors that can drive an investment. It works with odds in your favor, or at least that are even, rather than with odds that are against you.
Investing is slow and steady
Investing is the process of putting money at risk in order to get a return. It’s the way that businesses get started, roads get built, and explorations get financed.
Investing is very much focused on the long term. Good investors do a lot of research before committing their money because they know that it will take a long time to see a payoff. Investors often invest in things that are out of favor, because they know that, with time, others will recognize the value and respond in kind.
In contrast to investing, day trading moves fast. Day traders react only to what’s on the screen. There’s no time to do research, and the market is always right when you’re day trading. You don’t have two months or two years to wait for the fundamentals to work out and the rest of Wall Street to see how smart you were. And if you can’t live with that, you shouldn’t be day trading.
Day trading works fast
Trading is the act of buying and selling securities. All investors trade, because they need to buy and sell their investments. But to investors, trading is a rare transaction, and they get more value from finding a good opportunity, buying it cheap, and selling it at a much higher price sometime in the future. But traders are not investors.
Traders look to take advantage of short-term price discrepancies in the market. In general, they don’t take a lot of risk on each trade, so they don’t get a lot of return on each trade, either. Traders act quickly. They look at what the market is telling them and then respond.
They know that many of their trades won’t work out, but as long as more than half work, they’ll be okay. They don’t do a lot of in-depth research on the securities they trade, but they know the normal price and volume patterns well enough that they can recognize potential profit opportunities.
Difference Between Trading Stocks And Gambling Companies
Trading keeps markets efficient because it creates the short-term supply and demand that eliminates small price discrepancies. It also creates a lot of stress for traders, who must react in the here and now. Traders give up the luxury of time in exchange for a quick profit.
Difference Between Stocks And Options
Speculation is related to trading in that it often involves short-term transactions. Speculators take risks, assuming a much greater return than may be expected, and a lot of what-ifs may have to be satisfied for the transaction to pay off. Many speculators hedge their risks with other securities, such as options or futures.
Gambling is nothing more than luck
Difference Between Trading Stocks And Gambling Sites
A gambler puts up money in the hopes of a payoff if a random event occurs. The odds are always against the gambler and in favor of the house, but people like to gamble because they like to hope that, if they hit it lucky, their return will be as large as their loss is likely.
Difference Between Stock And Share
Some gamblers believe that the odds can be beaten, but they are wrong. They get excited about the potential for a big win and get caught up in the glamour of the casino, and soon the odds go to work and drain away their stakes.