Stock market v Betfair market

Answer: the class system.

And stigma. Gambling is a vice, but doing exactly the same on stocks/shares/currency, etc, is an industry.

betfair seen as gambling

stock market isnt seen as gambling

by the masses


strange but true



in reality its the reverse...

Giles buys shares in Tesco - and they go down - and - 'Giles was unlucky'

Bill backs a horse that gets a bad, unlucky ride - and - 'Bill is a mug-punter'.

Exactly, whats the difference between 'I think company X is going to perform well so will invest in their shares' and 'I think horse X is going to perform well so will invest in its next run'

Probably there is far more manipulation goings on and inside info on stock market than the gambling market.

After seeing that lot last night doing their cobblers on the currency markets I could suggest they might buy a copy of the Racing Post.

^ JP McManus and Michael Tabor - do BOTH.

Exactly Richard,

will be interesting to know how many of those in the know at Tesco sold shares when the share price was artificially higher due their accounting error in not reporting profits £250m lower.

too much fish not enough bear

What is the same in both cases is that latency is 85% of the deal.

There are parts of share trading that are very similar to backing horses namely day trading where dealing on a short term basis in order to take advantage of takeovers, good results or management changes which give a boost to a share price. However, even this is different to gambling on horses in that you can take as much time as your nerve can stand and if the price falls you can get out without losing your whole stake. The vast majority of share dealing is completely different to gambling in that if you invest for the long term you can monitor your deal imposing a stop loss so that it is sold if it loses 5% but if your keep your nerve for say 5 years history tells us you will still have 90%plus of your stake and if you have picked a good dividend paying stock you would have got income of 3 to 4% and rising for 5 years.

Is there a betfair account where they pay you to stay invested and let you withdraw a good% of your stake if you get nervous? Forget the class war crap AND READ,LEARN AND MONITER SITUATIONS. im

I'm working class from S E London, don't know toffs no silver spoon but it works for me but I don't need an adrenaline rush which I think is why lots of guys get burnt on the stock market and look for someone to blame

I would agree contrary, except I have done much better with US stocks than UK. I invest for 1/5 years but the best thing that I ever did was get out of the market halfway down the 2007/08 crash: sold everything and bought back 5 shares for every three I sold. Or rather, I could have. That's when I bought Microsoft/Intel and Apple, who have been best of all.

Wesdag, Directors share dealing are a matter of public record and most probably shares were bought at £4+ a year or so ago, so why would they panic and take the loss when you can keep faith in the new CEO and see the price get back to £4 within 5 years if not sooner? It is a case of staying invested with your tin hat on  unless of course you need the money

UB, Good to hear of your success. I'm guessing you researched, read and monitored your holdings taking decisions on based on trends and facts, very different to perusing  the Racing Post.

contrary - to be honest, I just acted on gut feeling, which was that the small investor has a better chance in US stocks. So I bought the kind of stocks the UK does not have in size (tech) and have done well.

Many years ago on the advice of a financial advisor in the days of 'peps' my wife  and I invested £20,000 with the Legal & General. You were only allowed to invest £6,000 each per annum, but, we invested at the end of March and early April, i.e the start of the new financial year.

The Legal & General guy who processed the paperwork worked from a Northern Rock bank which was next to a Stanley Racing betting shop. My wife and I had lunch and I decided to have a bet before we made our way home. Low and behold the guy from Legal and General was in the betting shop smoking like a trooper and betting on each dog race that was run. I came out of the betting shop and said to my wife I think we've just thrown our money away.

At there lowest point our 'peps' were valued at £12,000. We left the money with the Legal and General until the losses were recovered and we had a small profit before transferring the money to Invesco and Gartmore (now Hendersons).

The lesson I learned was always to make your own mistakes, don't rely on anyone else and I've carried that on with my betting and have never used tipsters.

i like to think that gambling and betting are 2 different things :


gambling is basically having a bet based on not much at all , it's like guessing and hoping , such as backing a horse without any study at all .

betting is making a bet based on knowledge/judgement/study that something may or may not happen given the odds on offer whether it is worth a bet or not .

The lesson I learned was always to make your own mistakes, don't rely on anyone else and I've carried that on with my betting and have never used tipsters. holywell

Amen. Any moron can be a "financial advisor". Grab your pension when you can, you've been ripped off all your life.

unitedbiscuits,

I made that mistake with a relatively small amount of money many years ago and learned from it. I was lucky enough to be able to retire 6 years ago aged 56 so as you say 'you've been ripped off all your life' is factually incorrect.

"financial advisor"

reality:
"This product is better for your needs but if i flog you that i only get £50 commission, This other product not as good for your needs gets me £500 commission therefore I as a Financial Advisor recommend the 2nd product is right for you. That will be £200 please".

Good for you holywell.
When I say "you", I mean the reader with a pension.