I think "gambling" implies that there are decent odds that you'll walk away with nothing. This is obviously a high probability event in options trading. Odds

I think "gambling" implies that there are decent odds that you'll walk away with nothing. This is obviously a high probability event in options trading. Odds you'll walk away with nothing if you buy into Tesla? Close to 0. Odds you'll lose >50% of your money - not 0. If you think buying into a global market index fund over a 30-year horizon has a decent probability of a negative real return - not to be rude - but you're a bit clueless about finance. Sure, if you buy individual stocks - for any horizon - that's roughly "gambling". You could even call buying into the S&P for a <10 year horizon "gambling" - although, statistically, your chance of a negative real return is VERY low, and your chance of a positive real return is VERY high. This isn't what normal people think of when they think of "gambling".