From: "Mail Man" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.futures misc.invest.stocks aus.invest sci.econ uk.finance
Subject: Re: Trading is Gambling?
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 05:54:24 -0700
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"Travis Morien" wrote:
>
> No doubt speculation serves a useful purpose, speculators are like
> those people that don't know how to arrange their finances so they can
> pay less tax.  The rest of us benefit from their lack of knowledge
> about tax.
>
> Speculators don't tend to see themselves as philanthropists though,
> they usually wish to create wealth for themselves rather than everyone
> else.
>


To a large extent, I agree in principle.  But, I think we have a slight
semantics problem here, so I'll see what I can do.

Nothing in this world can be built, run, clothed or fed without the initial
availability of raw resources for processing.  ALL of these resources are
traded for delivery on ALL of the various futures and commodities exchanges
all over the world.

By definition of these exchanges, themselves, there is NO "investment"
taking place in any of these markets -- it is 100% pure "speculation."  This
is ONLY a word used to describe all of the participants in these markets and
DOES NOT necessarily mean that these speculators "run on the ragged edge,"
all taking great and foolish risks in a greedy attempt to drive the markets
crazy.  The successful traders manage their money and hedge their risks VERY
RESPONSIBLY, otherwise, the very nature of the markets, themselves, will
cause them to have quite large losses.

As a result, although "creating wealth for themselves" may be a driving
force in these markets, it is DEAD WRONG to characterize this, EVEN BY
INNUENDO, as "against the public good."  EVERY BUSINESS KNOWN TO MAN strives
to create wealth for its owner and, as GoldTrader said in his post,
"speculation is a business."

Mike Collier
Oak Harbor, WA