Stocks and Trading Thread - Channeling your inner Mono

[Habbaku]

I don't know any type of gambling that maps to the results that US stock market indexing and buy-and-hold strategies have provided, where short-term losses are mitigated by long-term returns.

[Tamas]

I am guessing Tyr's point is that you can't be certain that your stock purchase will be profitable.

When you purchase a bond you get a contract you are getting your money back with interest after a time period. You get no such thing with a stock. In that sense he is right. 

[Habbaku]

Bonds may have that contract, but there is certainly no certainty you'll get your money back with them. 

[Admiral Yi]

What are we comparing to being the house in a casino? Buy and hold or selling covered call options or daytrading or what?

Whatever the people who said "investing is gambling" meant.

[Threviel]

Though Threviel, you never did say whether he came out ahead or behind.

Well, I don't know if he continued after losing his pay. He lived, as far as I can remember from hand to mouth and this was not an investment strategy, just some idiot gambling.

[Admiral Yi]

Well, I don't know if he continued after losing his pay. He lived, as far as I can remember from hand to mouth and this was not an investment strategy, just some idiot gambling.

You said he won piddly stakes a lot of times before finally losing.  I was wondering if all those piddly stakes were greater or lesser than the big loss.

[Threviel]

You said he won piddly stakes a lot of times before finally losing.  I was wondering if all those piddly stakes were greater or lesser than the big loss.

I've been trying to find it again, but this was a decade or two ago and I have not been able to. My guess is that he did not since it would presumably take years of betting the monthly wage.

[grumbler]

What are we comparing to being the house in a casino? Buy and hold or selling covered call options or daytrading or what?

Whatever the people who said "investing is gambling" meant.

Buying a house is gambling, as is buying an apple.  Lots of decisions are gambles.  The questions are always how well you can estimate the risks, what your stake is, and what the downside of losing the gamble is.

[DGuller]

What are we comparing to being the house in a casino? Buy and hold or selling covered call options or daytrading or what?

Whatever the people who said "investing is gambling" meant.

Buying a house is gambling, as is buying an apple.  Lots of decisions are gambles.  The questions are always how well you can estimate the risks, what your stake is, and what the downside of losing the gamble is.

In this context, I think gambling has a very specific definition:  it's a bet with negative expectation that you hope to get lucky on.  In this context, a bet with positive expectation that you can get unlucky on is not gambling.  That said, there is a gray area where you can make a bet with positive expectation, but nevertheless the risk of ruin is high enough that it may be an unwise bet from a utility curve perspective.

[Barrister]

Looks like Gamestop is up to its old tricks - the stock is up to $188 per share, triple what it was just a couple of weeks ago.

[Barrister]

Looks like Gamestop is up to its old tricks - the stock is up to $188 per share, triple what it was just a couple of weeks ago.

$230 at the moment.

[Tamas]

Looks like Gamestop is up to its old tricks - the stock is up to $188 per share, triple what it was just a couple of weeks ago.

$230 at the moment.

All the silly "growth" stocks like Tesla are rallying today. I suspect a big bulltrap for the enthusiastic retail buyers fomo-ing in when stimulus is passed.

[Josquius]

I'm really surprised that GME is up so much. Expected it was just a temporary spike up into the 100s but there it goes.
Regretting not buying when I noticed it starting to go at 70 again. Hey ho.

[Tamas]

I'm really surprised that GME is up so much. Expected it was just a temporary spike up into the 100s but there it goes.
Regretting not buying when I noticed it starting to go at 70 again. Hey ho.

There were far more reasons to think it was on its way to 12.

[Admiral Yi]

Tesla and Square have been jumping up and down like a yoyo today.