Stocks&Shares Vs. Gambling

The former brings up images of clever educated people in nice suits drinking champagne  the latter lifes losers in dingy betting shops between cans of special brew.

to the opening post , have the same conversation , and the same ****g response , trying to explain to the old folks , and no its gambling , BUT  if im off to work in london on the stock exchange ,thats a career !! ,un ****g believable jeff !!

It's the same sort of attitude that leads people to think that that immigrants are spongers, gays are paedos or exchange operators are altruists.

And long may it continue to be so

Buying shares is becoming owner of a % of the company, it's a different thing. It might entitle you to voting rights. If you were rich enough you might even be able to largely own a company. A share might stay absolutely static with inflation in value and you'd ideally at least get dividends. If it's a new share issue you're giving capital to the company, which might help it grow.

A much better comparison would be tradefair or similar - that truly is betting on performance of a share, without ever actually owning anything substantial.

Sorry but the above is just smoke and mirrors, there is no difference only a difference in attitude.

If i do the form and i research a race and through my research i decide that horse X is a good investment and good value i then buy a bet on that horse and it the end of the race i can sell that bet back to the bookie if the horse won i get a return on my investment.

Now say i am sitting at home i pull up some stock website and pick a couple companies and then buy some shares without doing any research at all who would you say is taking more of a gamble.

It all comes down to how you run your punting investments, if you are happy to just back or lay your favourite team with out know your odds and strike rates or with out research then good luck to you, but i will never let anyone call me a gambler because there is no difference between me and some one deciding to start a new business.

Sure the odds are much higher for me but i guess some would say so are the risks, if the stock market takes a dive tomorrow millions lose money but it has no effect on the true investment industry.

I'm not saying there's no similarity, there certainly is, but there are also big differences.

I'm familiar with the response on some people's faces if you tell them you bet online, a bit like you'd just told them you like to spend your spare time injecting crack into your leprosy infected man bits

Funny, when I tell people that I gamble successfully on line, they mostly go green with envy, and start to pepper me with questions about how I do it.

The standard response I get to saying i'm a professional gambler is 'so are you up or down'   And then I get on to explaining the concept of trading to lock in a profit, quite a basic in my mind but yet seems completely incomprehensible to everyone else.  If I say I just back a given player then the mugs start asking for tips and asking 'so did you back..?' ffs
Think I might just start claiming i'm an online trader and leave it there

Try explaining the concept of " laying" on a gambling exchange or even " shorting" on a stock exchange or " selling " on a futures exchange, and you will get the same dumb, bemused expressions.

Being able to have a say in a company is all good and so, but im talking small time exchanging, not buying 51% of Nike or Microsoft. Lets say just "toying" around with any amount between 1-10k (which in normal circumstances entitles you to sweet f... all, just to go with the economical flow of the company.

Right now im no a pro at anything (nor stocks nor gambling) and dont intent to. But it makes me laugh when people almost look down on you for gambling (except for casinos, thats also makes you as cool as james bond himself), but think stock exchanging the best and most inteligent thing in the world.

In all fairness, i got on djokovic to win the final at almost 5/2... what move in the stock world can give you all that benefit in 2 hours?!?!

You can lose everything on one gambling wager.
It's pretty difficult to lose everything on one stock exchange transaction.

That's why I doubt the majority of users are at all bothered about the new charge. I reckon they weren't even aware of the previous one.

Hello Rocket.
Our posting paths haven't crossed for a while.
How are you ?
Holding up well under the new PC regime ?

Djokovic wasnt going to lose the final, like vodafone wont go bust tomorrow.

There are 1.1 certainties, and evens common sense. But yes, I agree with that point.

but the asset manager (even with your pension contributions)will invest in a collective of investments - say vodafone included

but may also have woolworths (historic), jane norman, habitat etc...


no different to having a staking plan (controlled)over a number of bets

both a spread on investments

the first revered

the 2nd frowned upon

All just saying in effect that the stock exchange is the biggest gambling exchange around.

http://green-all-over.blogspot.com/2008/09/keeping-up-appearances.html

That short story sums it up to a tee.

1000€ and sensible 50€ bets around evens (as long as you get more than 50% right) put you in the green. Of course if you can't get 50% of your bets right you might as well quit...

1000€ stuck in some recession-cancered company can go any which way, but going green is the least likely way these days.


Thanks for listening folks, I had to share my distress. ;)

Unless you are a day trader most stock investments are long term.

punting is different because most is short term from the length of a race to maybe the winner of an event, but one thing is for sure when you say you are winning and they see the proof they want to know how you do it and there attitude changes.

I just tell people I'm retired, I used to tell them I'm an online exchange trader but they look at you as if you have just stepped out of a spaceship, I got fed up explaining exactly what I do. Everything in life is a gamble where money is involved, getting a mortgage these days is the biggest gamble you can take on, you are gambling that you will have employment for x number of years to pay it back and in todays job climate, it's steeply odds against as many are finding.

lol - had this story all my life. People ask me why I don't buy shares and I say why should I bet on something I know next to nothing about when the 3:20 Hcap chase at Chelt presents me with a decided edge. When people mention life insurance I tell them they've just placed a bet they're going to die within x years - same thing.

Ultimately the gambling stigma is there for a reason as most do their b0ll0cks [thru their own indiscipline] but when it happens in the stock market its seen as tragically unfortunate series of events.

listening to that makes me wonder what happened to the hedge fund that started trading on betfair last year. there was a big article about it during the footie wcc or shortly after, if I am not wrong.

can't be arsed to look that up myself ]

Come on lads fess up.
You just love the look on people's faces when you tell them you're a professional gambler.
You suddenly look like George Clooney or Paul Newman.

listening to that makes me wonder what happened to the hedge fund that started trading on betfair last year. there was a big article about it during the footie wcc or shortly after, if I am not wrong.

If it's run along city lines fees will already have depleted it to nothing.

Unless folk probe i don't tell anyone what i do , if i say gamble they basically assume i have a problem .

Most will say they have never met a successful gambler ,most will also assume you are  on benefits or some scam .

I guess it's better to say you clean toilets really,it gets you more respect.

At the end of the day that's all i would otherwise be good for,and i tell folk just that.

Stocks must be the biggest waste of money going, from my own experience i am 3k down on shares 2k of that must have been in commission

"must be"  "from my own experience", does not follow.

lol, what i mean is ..they don't exist  for Joe Publics benefit do they ? ,i've never known anyone to make a living on stocks and shares  other than traders and and filthy low life brokers .