Post
Topic
Board Gambling discussion
Re: Between futures trading and gambling
by
Mauser
on 07/08/2023, 07:37:13 UTC
Some people actually think there are patterns in slot or dice games who probably think trading is also like gambling based on luck. Lottery for example is what makes it obvious since they are buying tickets every day with the same number over and over thinking it will eventually come and they get to win the biggest life-changing money. They wouldn't consider buying tickets risky when they spend just a dollar a day than trading which a trader will put a thousand.

What else can we do? Force these people who are not a fan of trading to consider trading compare to gambling.

Just let these people do what they want. These people who are lottery enthusiast surely knows the risks they are dealing with and the slim chance they are facing to win this life-changing money. We can't just tell them to do trading instead since if there is no interest, then they are just gambling their money in trading too, the same way they are doing it in gambling.

Instead, if we really want to help these people to change their gambling habit, give them a nice talk to put their money instead on something good that they really have an interest in and not that they just see other people making money out of that.

That is a very optimistic approach and in a perfect world it would be a great thing to help everybody with giving them a talk about the consequences of their action and that their current path will likely lead to large financial losses. Unfortunately, we are not living in such a world, people are very reluctant to take advise from strangers and will probably not trust us, even if we are honest and only want to help. The difference between futures trading and gambling is the access to the two. Everybody who is 18 in my country can enter a casino and start gambling if they have the money, whereas starting to buy futures you need to setup a special account with the bank. I remember before being able to trade futures at my bank I had to fill out a questionnaire about my previous trading experience and my knowledge. Also, in a talk with the bank employee he showed me again that the losses from futures trading can be much higher than when trading stocks. So, there are special regulatory requirements for futures trading to protect people from themselves, in gambling such a thing doesn't exist. The problem is that futures trading usually involved leverage, which can lead to financial problems, in the casino we usually just gamble with our own money and if we lose it we have to stop. Having more protection for the customer is a good thing in futures trading, but in gambling there it’s not really necessary.