Stock Investing or Gambling?
Lawson Ahrens
UNCW
Abstract
The line between gambling and stock investing can be blurry. (insert definitions here)
For the most part investing is not gambling; however, there are a few exceptions. Investing in the stock market does have risk, day-trading and investing addiction are comparable to gambling. But what differentiates the two is the market as a whole grows in a positive direction. Other key differences are that the odds are slightly in your favor when investing and investors have more information at their disposal when making decisions. (Ciura, 2014)
Main Body
What separates the stock market from a casino is that as a whole, the market grows in a positive direction,
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(Mercadante, 2017) The S&P 500 Index registered 5.7% annualized gains over the past decade. If you buy high-quality stocks and hold them for long periods of time, history has shown us that the increasing profits generated by the best businesses produce solid annual returns. (Ciura, 2014)
Gambling is a zero-sum game. When you lose at gambling you lose and its over. The value or money wagered is simply transferred from one gambler to another. Investors buy and sell instead of waiting for a gambling hand to be completely over, they can have partial winners and partial losers. Investing increases the overall wealth of the economy. With investing, companies increase their productivity and develop new products. Investing creates wealth over the very long-term for investors and is not the same as gambling. (Coleman)
Unlike investing, there is only a limited amount of information while you are gambling. Investing is different because there is a plenty of information about companies you could potentially invest in such as stock reports and income
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According to Michelle Nogueira, addictions and problem gambling counsellor with Homewood Community Addiction Services in Guelph, Ontario:
“Online trading fits the profile of problem gambling when it compromises, disrupts, or damages important areas of peoples’ lives,” she says. “If there’s a preoccupation with online trading, a loss of control and continuation of the behavior in the face of negative consequences, then it’s crossed the line into problem gambling.”
Traders with a gambling problem present a unique challenge to treatment. “In their minds, gambling is bad, but they see their activity as investing —something positive,” she says. “Heavy trading losses are seen as a part of their education.”
Nogueira says that problem traders she’s counselled typically trade in a high-risk, speculative stock portfolio that continues to become more risky. “It’s as though their tolerance increases and they’re trying to maintain that level of excitement,” she says. “They’re constantly checking the market and the value of their stocks in real
The goal is to teach you to wear the glasses of a professional trader who sees the difference between low and high-probability trades. With these new glasses, your trading account gradually reflects the consequences of making high-probability trades. With more money in your trading account, you can buy more contracts. You experience the law of compounding, and your account grows exponentially.
There are many reasons why people gamble and what the advantages and disadvantages are of risking your bank account on the roll of the dice or the luck of the draw. I originally set out to try and explain why people gamble, but I realized that gambling is just as much of a business or industry as anything else. I researched Foxwoods casino, in CT, and the business behind that. From there I will attempt to explain the “cause and effect” of gambling. Gambling has made much more sense to me now, and I hope it will do the same for you.
The Exploratory Essay Gambling has become an important part of several people’s daily lives, so much so that some people are willing to put their lives savings at risk just for the win. Gambling is something that can start out as something very small, with trips to the casino here and there, or maybe just buying a couple lottery tickets. These small things can start slowly and sooner or later, sometimes even many years later, they can add up and become necessary in life. Then without even noticing it, these issues slowly turn in to a habit and begin to take over the individuals entire life despite it being so innocent and carefree in the beginning. While the numbers of people addicted to gambling is rising, many people in the United States
Gambling and the Brain Why do gamblers bet more after they just lost a hand? Why do investors throw good money after bad? Why do people believe that a string of losses makes a win more likely? Why do so many people say that they will win their money back in the next few years? Is part of the appeal of gambling its unpredictability?
The adrenaline-rushing feeling of gambling offers people the idea that opportunity lies within their hands. Unfortunately, there are far too many consequences to gambling to even begin to count. To win you must play, and to win big you must play big. As more gamblers can recall their losses rather than their winnings, gamblers are often dealt with poor hands and must play the risky game to stay alive. Even though gambling has so many faults, some still fall under its corruptions because of gambling’s deceiving fallacies.
Gambling is very risk and will impact on finance, family, health and job. Firstly family risk, ”spend more time gambling or think about gambling and it can be difficult to maintain a normal life, this creates stress and ha...
"Gamblers Anonymous: Q and A." Gamblers Anonymous Official Home Page. Web. 12 May 2011. .
Gambling has become quite popular all over the world, but it is not free of potential problems. According to the DSM-IV-TR, the lifetime prevalence rate of adult...
Over the past couple decades, sports gambling has become a growing industry and a hotly debated topic. Sports gambling is the act of placing a monetary wager on a sporting event for a specific outcome to happen. Daniel P. Connaughton claims sports gambling has always been an attractive medium for betting because the outcome of the games is unknown and so many factors go into a sports game (436). But currently as it stands in the United States, people may only bet on sports in Nevada. Yet the industry continues to expand and according to Jeffrey Roske, “Americans wager over $500 billion per year on sports. Of this staggering total, only $2-$3 billion per year are gambled legally within the state of Nevada…” (463). Roske’s evidence brings up
Previous anti-gambling arguments focused on the perceived immorality and considered gambling as a sin against God, the society and family. Modern arguments on the other hand, consider gambling as a diseases rather than as a sin. This means that criticism for gambling is directed at the gambling industry, which is condemned for taking advantage of the weaknesses of the gamblers. The opposition to gambling is because it increases family disruptions, domestic violence, increase crime rate and increased use of drugs. However, when gambling is done in moderation there are positive consequences that outweigh the bad consequences. This paper will argue that gambling is a moral business model.
As individuals, we are responsible for ourselves, including the decisions we make. However, with the temptations of making “easy money” and the dreams of hitting that million-dollar jackpot, these decisions make it hard for individuals to resist, which traps them into making poor decisions. With today’s economy, individuals are susceptible to mounting pressures from finances, work and a fast paced lifestyle. Even though these are everyday factors in our lives, they contribute to our stress level. Many times it is drugs or alcohol that individuals turn to, but there is also another very addicting behavior that many people turn to, gambling. There has been a rise in pathological gambling in the past 10 years and it is only increasing. With this fact, gambling is only banned in two states in the whole United States of America. What are the problems associated with pathological gambling and is the government and casinos acting ethically by propagating such an addicting act?
Gambling involves taking a risk. It’s something that gets our adrenaline pumping. Believe it or not, money is one of the major things that makes the world go round and some of those believe that money does indeed buy happiness in our lives. We all have heard the stories of those who have won thousands to even millions of dollars just by gambling and we instantly think that could be us. If some random person can be that one in a million, surely I can be too, right? Even though gambling is a fun thing to do, it is important to be aware of the kinds of gamblers that exist in today’s society and realize that gambling should be played in moderation. For instance, some variations of players include: The Social Gambler, The Professional Gambler, and
As previously mentioned, the issue at the center of the controversy or debate is morality or ethics. Morality or ethics has been at the heart of controversies regarding gambling because some people consider it as unethical. The consideration of gambling as an immoral act is largely attributed to religious beliefs and stigma of obtaining money relatively for nothing. Moreover, the ethical dilemmas and concerns associated with gambling is brought by the emergence of problem gamblers who account for nearly 2.1 percent of total number of gamblers (Kannon, 2012). Therefore, ethical concerns and dilemmas in gambling are fueled by the inherently sinful attitude about the activities, which generate a classical ethical problem from an individual level
Gambling addiction is an issue found in numerous areas where gambling is legal. People who are addicted to gambling, also know as problem gamblers, face many health risks including depression, suicidal thoughts, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, migraine and anxiety in addition to marriage breakdown, problems at work and bankruptcy (9). About 2 percent of adults are thought to be problem gamblers (1). In today’s society this costly addiction is not often considered to be a common problem among those who gamble. Only a small amount of states in the U.S. give enough attention toward this rising problem of people that are sometimes even willing to commit crimes just to aid their addiction. In the past our government has sought out a few solutions that help those who have developed an addiction and prevent a further increase in the number of people becoming addicted. Personally, my outlook on the problem is that it needs a better solution. I think that a higher funding to gambling addiction clinics, more ordinance and restriction laws, and more prevention and awareness programs should bee brought into consideration in order to lower the amount of people who become addict to gambling.
Our understanding and the concept of investment in behavioural finance combines economics and psychology to analyse how and why investors make final decision. As an investor one’s decision to invest is fully influence by different type of attitudes of behavioural and psychological ( Ricciardi & Simon, 2000). Yet, in order to maximize their financial goal, investors must have a good investment planning. Furthermore , to gain a good investment planning , there must be a good decision making among investors. They have to choose the right investment plan I order to manage the resources for different type of investments not only to gain profit wise but also to avoid the risk that occur from investment.