4 ms·

What exactly is the analogy being drawn here?

pakitan 8y ago
The more appropriate analogy is that trading stocks is like gambling. And it's not even analogy. Unless you really know what you're doing, trading stocks is gambling, just with less house edge.
- m3kw9 8y ago
  Not less but unknown
  - pakitan 8y ago
    The house is your broker and their commissions plus the spread - the edge. So, the edge is very well known.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- walshemj 8y ago
  I think what your talking about is speculating vs investing - the term Benjamin Garnham uses.
  - unforeseen9991 8y ago
    Exactly. Few people get the difference. Speculative trading is not investing. Professional trading, esp with leverage, is extraordinarily difficult to gain the required mentality, discipline, knowledge, and skills be consistently profitable. The common saying is that 90% fail, I believe it's higher, perhaps much higher. Learning trading was the most difficult thing I've done in my life. It's hard in a way most people don't grasp.
  - pakitan 8y ago
    Yes, I'm talking about speculating though the difference is basically just in the holding duration of your stocks. If you're trading every day, that's speculation. If you buy and hold for 10 years, that's investing.
dont-trd-charts 8y ago
Markets are like crack: very addicting. Futures especially. It can be an unhealthy obsession where you cannot sleep, constantly doing a prediction loop watching where the market goes 24 hours a day, sleep deprived, drawn to the ticks up and down.
Pils 8y ago
Stock trading is to wealth management as opiates/painkillers are to pain management. Both can be part of a larger strategy that leads to an optimal outcome while minimizing risk, but the average layperson might not be able to accurately gauge/understand how minimize this risk. The argument then is consumer-facing stock trading services create a moral hazard similar to the one created by unscrupulous doctors or your neighborhood drug dealer.

The more appropriate analogy is that trading stocks is like gambling. And it's not even analogy. Unless you really know what you're doing, trading stocks is gambling, just with less house edge.

m3kw9 8y ago
Not less but unknown
- pakitan 8y ago
  The house is your broker and their commissions plus the spread - the edge. So, the edge is very well known.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
walshemj 8y ago
I think what your talking about is speculating vs investing - the term Benjamin Garnham uses.
- unforeseen9991 8y ago
  Exactly. Few people get the difference. Speculative trading is not investing. Professional trading, esp with leverage, is extraordinarily difficult to gain the required mentality, discipline, knowledge, and skills be consistently profitable. The common saying is that 90% fail, I believe it's higher, perhaps much higher. Learning trading was the most difficult thing I've done in my life. It's hard in a way most people don't grasp.
- pakitan 8y ago
  Yes, I'm talking about speculating though the difference is basically just in the holding duration of your stocks. If you're trading every day, that's speculation. If you buy and hold for 10 years, that's investing.

dont-trd-charts 8y ago

Markets are like crack: very addicting. Futures especially. It can be an unhealthy obsession where you cannot sleep, constantly doing a prediction loop watching where the market goes 24 hours a day, sleep deprived, drawn to the ticks up and down.

Pils 8y ago

Stock trading is to wealth management as opiates/painkillers are to pain management. Both can be part of a larger strategy that leads to an optimal outcome while minimizing risk, but the average layperson might not be able to accurately gauge/understand how minimize this risk. The argument then is consumer-facing stock trading services create a moral hazard similar to the one created by unscrupulous doctors or your neighborhood drug dealer.