Difference between "trading" and "gambling"

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Derek27
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I'm not sure if Euler was agreeing with the quote or just quoting, but if you back a 3/1 winner, if your aim was just to back a winner, then it is pure luck.

If your aim is to get 30% winners on all your 3/1 bets thereby making a 20% ROI, which is more like what serious gamblers are aiming for, then you need a bigger sample to determine if the aim as been achieve. If the aim has been achieve or if the gambler has made a profit over a decent period of time, nobody can argue that it's luck.

Whichever twit tweeted that quote obviously doesn't understand gambling and believes it's about nothing more than backing winners. Mind you, about 98% of the population probably doesn't understand gambling.
stueytrader
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Have to agree that it is wrong to classify all 'gambling' as purely based on 'luck'.

Equally, not all of a trader's results will be down to their 'skill' - some of it will also be due to luck.
max_usted
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Perhaps it's a question of "refinement" - as in distillation and sophistication.

Many people seem to consider speculating to be a rather indulgent and morally hazardous activity (addiction, effect on families and wider society, etc).

We distinguish between people who enjoy the morally hazardous practice of alcohol consumption in terms of our perception of their degree of sophistication (including their self-control and the effect that their practice has on wider society) - so that a middle-class drinker can be a "fine-wine lover," and their enjoyment of alcohol can be considered a mark of their refinement/status, whereas a park vagrant is a "wine-o" or an "alcoholic" (pejorative). And this is a meaningful and worthwhile hierarchy, given the wider social effect of the two classes of behaviour.

So i'd maybe make the same distinction between people who "trade" in a controlled and ultimately profitable manner on the one hand, and a gambler who punts their family fortune on NZ to win the World Cup at the beginning of the tournament, or on wild accumulators etc, on the other.

So traders of any kind, speculators, investors, gamblers or all doing roughly the same activity, and we use different words to distinguish them on the basis of our perception of their refinement? So not an exact science at all (in technical terms), more a question of consensus on what should be the social status of an activity, with "gambling" a more pejorative term to describe wilder behaviour, and trading referring to something more disciplined/refined in a rather general sense.
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MemphisFlash
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this is what a gambler will do
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Derek27
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Can't remember what tournament it was, but England was once as low as 5/2 with one bookie. A news reporter who new nothing about betting was getting all excited about it, even though they were 11/2 with other bookies.
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ruthlessimon
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MemphisFlash wrote:
Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:00 pm
this is what a gambler will do
Ha, yeah!

In fact just looking at the winner odds on Betfair, Uruguay 50/1!?! Lol easily half the team get in the England 1st 11. Muslera, Godin, Gimenez, Cavani (maybe), Suarez. I'm even tempted to trade that, should be at least somewhere close to England's odds.
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Kafkaesque
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ruthlessimon wrote:
Fri Oct 13, 2017 5:56 pm

Ha, yeah!

In fact just looking at the winner odds on Betfair, Uruguay 50/1!?! Lol easily half the team get in the England 1st 11. Muslera, Godin, Gimenez, Cavani (maybe), Suarez. I'm even tempted to trade that, should be at least somewhere close to England's odds.
Generally, I'd tend to agree with your observation. The big difference is that the drop-off in quality between the best and second best for most positions is steeper for Uruguay. Enough for that kind of price difference? Probably not. But it makes it a risky position as a trade. An injury to Suarez and you'll likely have to sell it a very big loss. Less likely for that long-term an injury now, I know, but also less movement in the market now.
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ruthlessimon
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That's a fair point, yes I agree with that. Also waiting on a year for a trade isn't probably the best use of capital!
stueytrader
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Are we maybe rather guilty of using quite a 'straw-man' view of gambling here, perchance...? ;)

Yes, punters 'slapping money' on selections like idiots are of course very different from traders who are well controlled. But what about the well-disciplined, highly stake controlled, bankrolled, analytical to the hilt, type of 'gamblers'...surely they are a much closer breed to a trader...?
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ShaunWhite
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Gambling = zero income tax
Trading = taxable at standard rates.

I know we can technically avoid income tax and NI, but all other 'buy it low, sell it high' trading activity from investment management to the local fishmonger attracts cgt, corp tax or income tax.

I won't be too sorry if the HMRC continue to call what we do 'gambling'.
stueytrader
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ShaunWhite wrote:
Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:32 pm
Gambling = zero income tax
Trading = taxable at standard rates.

I know we can technically avoid income tax and NI, but all other 'buy it low, sell it high' trading activity from investment management to the local fishmonger attracts cgt, corp tax or income tax.

I won't be too sorry if the HMRC continue to call what we do 'gambling'.
Good point :lol:

I should say, from a little earlier, I did like Peter's post that a good distinction is that traders can still make money from correctly priced markets - I'd add a caveat though, that can only be done if the market 'moves' at some points to become 'incorrectly' priced...?
But I get the general idea that it isn't of course dependent on the true pricing of the outcome in the way that it is for the gambler.
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Euler
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You need to add the time element to the trading. So something could start at the right price, drift out and end exactly where it started. Value bettors made nothing but the trade made a good trade.
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Euler
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Essentially trading is gambling. Just on the direction of odds. It's really no different from spread betting on financial markets.
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LeTiss
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The difference between trading and gambling is basically discipline, because that's the only thing that gamblers lack when trying to trade

A trader with 6 successful greens is kidding himself, if he chases losses the moment he gets a red.

He's basically a gambler, not a trader at all
stueytrader
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LeTiss wrote:
Mon Oct 23, 2017 1:14 pm
The difference between trading and gambling is basically discipline, because that's the only thing that gamblers lack when trying to trade

A trader with 6 successful greens is kidding himself, if he chases losses the moment he gets a red.

He's basically a gambler, not a trader at all
Agree with your final conclusion, but not the bolded part - some people who take a position (i.e. gamble on the outcome) on a market may be highly disciplined in their approach, and sticking rigidly to their own strategy/staking etc. So it is not a necessary difference - in reality it may often be a difference in practice, just not necessarily. So it doesn't distinguish these as an activity.
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