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I guess I'm of the occasionally unpopular opinion that the gap between "high-risk stock picking" and gambling is nil. We can then replace that back into the hea

I guess I'm of the occasionally unpopular opinion that the gap between "high-risk stock picking" and gambling is nil. We can then replace that back into the headline and get "my parents have started gambling 10-15% of their net worth", and I feel that is destined to end poorly, especially when they try and recoup the inevitable upcoming losses.

SilasX 6y ago
Oh, no argument there, I was just speaking to the claim that the inheritance is gone.
xchaotic 6y ago
There is a huge difference between trading binary options or spread betting and holding a portfolio of FAANGS stocks. It’s very unlikely that you will lose 100% of your money if you’re holding more than 1 stock. Even ‘dead’ stocks like Boeing are pretty resilient on top of various bailouts and speculative hopes.
- reducesuffering 6y ago
  But day-trading isn't "holding a portfolio of FAANGS stocks." In bad times, it's buying TSLA at $400, then selling TSLA at $200 and buying AAPL at $100, then selling AAPL at $50 and buying INTC at $45, etc.
samatman 6y ago
Gambling has a bad reputation for several reasons: its addictive quality encourages bad behavior, it takes place in unsavory places full of other vices, and the house edge means it's a reliable way to stochastically lose money. The last two don't apply to playing the stock market, so we're left with it being addictive. A lot of drugs and behaviors are addictive, and in all cases there are users who are, nonetheless, not addicted. So caution is still indicated, but the situation is not as pessimistic or as inevitable as you paint it to be. In particular, losses are not inevitable. In a bull market, there will be more gains than losses, by definition, in a bear market, the opposite. The market is more bull than bear, fairly consistently, due to a combination of inflation and economic growth. Past performance is not indicative of future results...

SilasX 6y ago

Oh, no argument there, I was just speaking to the claim that the inheritance is gone.

xchaotic 6y ago

There is a huge difference between trading binary options or spread betting and holding a portfolio of FAANGS stocks. It’s very unlikely that you will lose 100% of your money if you’re holding more than 1 stock. Even ‘dead’ stocks like Boeing are pretty resilient on top of various bailouts and speculative hopes.

reducesuffering 6y ago
But day-trading isn't "holding a portfolio of FAANGS stocks." In bad times, it's buying TSLA at $400, then selling TSLA at $200 and buying AAPL at $100, then selling AAPL at $50 and buying INTC at $45, etc.

samatman 6y ago

Gambling has a bad reputation for several reasons: its addictive quality encourages bad behavior, it takes place in unsavory places full of other vices, and the house edge means it's a reliable way to stochastically lose money. The last two don't apply to playing the stock market, so we're left with it being addictive. A lot of drugs and behaviors are addictive, and in all cases there are users who are, nonetheless, not addicted. So caution is still indicated, but the situation is not as pessimistic or as inevitable as you paint it to be. In particular, losses are not inevitable. In a bull market, there will be more gains than losses, by definition, in a bear market, the opposite. The market is more bull than bear, fairly consistently, due to a combination of inflation and economic growth. Past performance is not indicative of future results...