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submitted 11 hours ago by SorteKanin@feddit.dk to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 57 minutes ago

Agriculture is gambling.

It’s also the origin of interest.

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 1 points 26 minutes ago

I'm pretty sure hunting and foraging is gambling too.

[-] NovaVeles@lemmy.world 3 points 35 minutes ago

It is gambling attached to a ponzi scheme. It kind of works so long as growth can keep up, but if it ever stops and reverses for any reason...

Unrelated, how are sea surface temperatures going nowadays?

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 1 points 21 minutes ago

Glad you asked!

[-] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 2 points 2 hours ago

Put gatcha and all them mobile games alike and yeah.

[-] StabbingSky@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 hours ago

I wouldn't say that common stock trading is gambling, but futures and options trading definitely is.

[-] Omnipitaph@reddthat.com 1 points 45 minutes ago

As a futures trader, I can confirm that trading futures is gambling. Like poker, if you know what you're doing, you can make a living. Most people can't make a living playing poker, and 95% of traders are not profitable.

[-] NovaVeles@lemmy.world 2 points 38 minutes ago

The way stocks are meant to work, it isn't gambling. It is an investment in a company in order to help them grow and gain a return from that.

The way people use it now, it is gambling.

it's educated gambling where the house has significantly less of an edge (or at least appears to)

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 32 minutes ago

"Appears" being key.

[-] webpack@ani.social 3 points 1 hour ago

gambling has negative expected value, the house always wins in the long run.

the stock market has pretty much always trended up over time so if you just buy a bunch of stuff and wait a while you will pretty much always win. (you can still gamble with stocks, it's just that stocks are fundamentally different and you can also not gamble)

yes, however it is at least theoretically possible for those with a controlling stake in enough companies to manipulate the entire market in a way that makes that strategy lose

[-] flandish@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

Andrew Beyer’s horse racing book “On Speed” (from the 70/80’s iirc?) showed that a long while ago the basic math for the stock market is very much similar to how paramutual horse / dog betting works.

it is gambling all the way down.

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 82 points 10 hours ago

It may look like gambling, but it's actually fraud.

[-] needanke@feddit.org 21 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Edited 4 panel Calvin and hobbes comic. Father speaking to son in first three panels: Therer are only two industries left in america: gambling and fraud. Derivatives? Gambling, Ai? Fraud. Video games? Gambling. Social Media? Fraud. The stock market looks like gambling but is actually fraud. Forth panel is the son lying in bed distraught.

Could not find a less jpg version :/

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Pornography is either fraud (nobody looks like that, nobody fucks like that, etc.) or gambling (you're looking at something hot and sexy until, catastrophically, you aren't).

[-] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 hour ago

what about the drawn verity?

[-] sundray@lemmus.org 20 points 10 hours ago

Like real gambling it’s all fixed by the mob.

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 hours ago

The mob used to be cool, pretending they were in the god father and feuding amongst themselves.

Now it's all peptide blood boy tech moguls who always look wet for some reason.

[-] moonshadow@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 hours ago

The telltale sheen of SHARK TESTOSTERONE

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 25 points 10 hours ago

Honestly... Yeah. Outside of insider trading, there's no real way to know what the future holds, so every stock and every bond is just a gamble with varying levels of risk (or Crypto if you like getting rug-pulled over and over)

Life in of itself is way more about being lucky than most people at the top would like you to think about

[-] protist@retrofed.com 13 points 10 hours ago

While this has changed, used to be you could look at the financials of a company and determine whether it was a reasonably good long-term investment, so you could pretty consistently build wealth with a diverse array of investments. With algorithmic trading down to the millisecond, much of this has gone out the window

[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. What job you take, where you decide to live, friends you make all have a risk/reward element to them.

That being said I do believe there is a big difference between polymarket/prediction markets and stocks (or at least some stocks). Prediction markets is either betting on pure chance or against insider knowledge. Technically stocks should be seen as investing in a company (especially ones that pay dividends). Could a company run into hard times and lose you money, sure, but there is at least a bit more freely available information on that available to you.

[-] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 9 points 8 hours ago

I was watching the World Series last night and made a comment in a chat about how ads and companies these days in the US are just one grift after another. Seriously, the ads were:

  • AI (multiple companies)
  • Medications that are borderline poison but somehow get approved anyway
  • Kalshi and other betting platforms

The US creates problems for its citizens and then finds ways to sell them the cure. All of this has accelerated over the years and it’s just going to get worse.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

Spouse was just watching something on some free streaming app and all the ads are ai generated and scams aimed at old people. This one was about some fake life insurance claims when it flashes a 1-2 second picture of this at the end where it tells you if you call they will add your information to their databases and sell it and you choose to void your rights and take yourself off the national do not call list..

[-] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 8 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

My mom got hit with this kind of shit. It’s the reason she ended up with 10 car warranties. I overheard her answer the phone one day while I was at her house and it was the parasite warranty company again. I ripped that motherfucker a new one. Made him tell me exactly how many warranties he can see that she had prior, made him cancel them all while I was on the phone, all with the threat of legal recourse. After all of that, I told him to get a real job and to stop fucking over the elderly.

A country that allows this, knows exactly what it’s doing. Just like the US government knew what it was doing when it repealed gambling regulations in 2018.

[-] Kowowow@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 hours ago

Prospecting is gambling

[-] FatherPeanut@pawb.social 5 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Jokes on you, I put all my savings in USD in 2000 and I'm only down 50%. I just gotta keep putting more in, I'll win eventually.

[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 10 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

And be very wary regarding any person telling you something is "Economics 101" - they are full of shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJrhBwGw7Ac

[-] Aralakh@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 hours ago

Thanks for sharing!

[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Sports betting = Yob gambling

Stock markets = wanker gambling

So come on now, whatareya?

[-] 20cello@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago

Life is one big slot machine

A rigged one

[-] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

(VTV+VXUS+BNDW)×(Roth) the most boring winning strategy. Get modestly rich slowly through consistently disciplined and simple contributions. It's your best bet for beating the house (because you're in the house, or at least its mudroom).

[-] Omnipitaph@reddthat.com 1 points 43 minutes ago

I'm having trouble looking up all those acronyms. I know about roth 401ks, but not the other stuff.

[-] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 hours ago

What happens when the AI companies get into the indexes? Big tech is already heavily represented and the AI bubble popping will probably destroy sensible index fund portfolios.

[-] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Probably bad things, which is why I feel (marginally) safer in VTV, Vanguard's large cap value fund, focused on consumer staples, insurance companies, holding companies like Berkshire, defense contractors...basically large companies with the lowest P/E and P/B ratios. I'm not saying it won't hurt when the bubble collapses, but it intentionally excludes the FAANG and overpriced tech.

It ain't perfect by any stretch, but it at least tries to capture profitable and (relatively) underpriced companies with proven records instead of market darlings.

VXUS for exposure to foreign markets. BNDW for the ginormous market of bonds.

The crash will hurt. It'll be a good buying opportunity for anyone with cash. I have a few more decades to weather the storm, so I'm just staying steady. I've already tried my hand at picking stocks (gambling) and learned the hard way (because I ignored the books telling me what not to do) that I suck at gambling. Technically, any normal person is supposed to suck at gambling, otherwise it wouldn't survive as a venture.

[-] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 hours ago

That serms like a sound plan. It’s all gonna be terrible, but that should at least be a hedge against the insanity in big tech. I suspect that defense will have a slow decline as our former allies contine to back away from our unreliable dumb asses, but it won’t have the spectacular crash out like AI related stocks.

[-] Alph4d0g@piefed.social 2 points 8 hours ago

The joke might be on the dude with the gun since gunpowder needs oxygen no?

[-] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

Yes, in the manufacturing of the cartridge, but once it's made, it doesn't need an atmosphere containing oxygen to activate. The explosive charge behind the peojectile is ready to go and just waiting for prime time.

[-] Alph4d0g@piefed.social 2 points 2 hours ago

Ah good info! Then there might still be the challenge of recoil?

[-] My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Newton's third law dictates there must be recoil. The momentum of the projectile and gasses exiting the end of the barrel must be exactly balanced by the force of holder's hand multiplied by the time it takes to arrest all motion of the recoiling firearm.

Momentum = definite integral of force as a function of time multiplied by the duration of time whete momentum and force are both specific to an equivalent directional vector.

Could also use an energy analysis. The total kinetic energy of the projectile and exiting gasses will equal the handheld force multiplied by the distance the gun moves backward - more movement backward, less average force...in the limiting case of minimal movement backward, the force will be extremely high and short-lived.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Yeah, much like if you take an m80 or many other fireworks and throw it in a lake it'll still explode, because the fuel the wick needs to stay lit is built in.

[-] ElChinchilla@lemmy.world 5 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I love shitting on the markets as much as the next person, but saying the Nasdaq is like polymarket is deliberately flippant.

[-] sik0fewl@piefed.ca 1 points 1 hour ago
[-] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago

It’s flip but the AI bubble makes me feel like it’s not totally out of pocket. Nasdaq changing it’s rules to let recently IPO’ed companies in sooner seems wildly reckless to me.

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[-] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

Bet365? Gambling?!

Never

[-] socsa@piefed.social -1 points 6 hours ago

Equating actual regulated equity markets with gambling apps is literally just gambling industry propaganda.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 28 minutes ago

Laughs in mayer amschel rothschild

[-] DjangoFett@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 hours ago

The New York Stock Exchange was founded by basically selling shares of itself alongside wheat and tobacco and betting on the fact that it'd be something someday.

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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
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