Re: NEW LEGISLATION PASSED: ONLINE STOCK TRADING NOW ILLEGAL
 

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What's the difference? I'll point out a few.

1.) Investing contributes to U.S. GDP and is taxable. Offshore poker operations do not.
2.) A decent poker player can potentially have a bigger edge with less uncertainty (at modest stakes) than a "decent" investor.
3.) To almost anyone outside of poker, the difference is that poker is a game of chance and investing is a game of skill. You won't be able to convince them otherwise since they live in the real world and you are some kooky gambler.

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All of these are completely false, except the last one is not as glaringly wrong.

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Uh, please explain. The first two are very clearly true as far as I can tell. The last one is sorta a matter of opinion, but seems pretty true also.

2 seems like the most contentious point, so consider the following. Give an expert poker player and an expert stock picker anywhere from 1 dollar to 1 million dollars to start with and have them try to make as much money as they can in a year. The poker player will have a better ROI nearly 100% of the time. I think it gets close for a starting stake of around 5 million. With 10 million plus the investor is usually going to to do better. But regardless of the starting stake the investor will definitely book more losing weeks/months/years than the poker player unless he follows an investment strategy that is risk averse to the point of absurdity.

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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Sorry havent been around since first post. Here's a little back story so you know where im coming from:
My 18 year old brother recently liquidated a mutal fund he recieved 10 years ago, dropped all 15k onto scottrade, bought a couple books on trading, and took a shot. Its only been a few months and he has seen his his account reach as high as 33k, and drop as low as 5k. He's currently around even or whatever, but his account has seen bigger swings than my bankroll. However, the government hasnt tried to step in and save him from himself.

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Yikes, I think that may be YOUR job. GL.

Re: NEW LEGISLATION PASSED: ONLINE STOCK TRADING NOW ILLEGAL
 

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2 seems like the most contentious point, so consider the following. Give an expert poker player and an expert stock picker anywhere from 1 dollar to 1 million dollars to start with and have them try to make as much money as they can in a year. The poker player will have a better ROI nearly 100% of the time. I think it gets close for a starting stake of around 5 million. With 10 million plus the investor is usually going to to do better. But regardless of the starting stake the investor will definitely book more losing weeks/months/years than the poker player unless he follows an investment strategy that is risk averse to the point of absurdity.

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Here's a better experiment. 4 participants: a top poker player, a top stock analyst, and 2 monkeys. Give each $1M and send the poker player and his monkey off to play internet poker, and the analyst and his monkey to each pick a portfolio. To make it a little more fair, say the ones playing poker are playing limit HE so the monkey just has to choose an action rather than how much to bet.

At the end of a year, the winner is the one who outpaces his monkey by the greatest %. I know who my money would be on (hint: I'd bet on the stock picking monkey to place).

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

Stock trading ( which is all online by the way)is very different then poker which can be played online or live. Stock trading is all long term and based on many different fields. You gotta be able to read company fincial reports and so on and understand them. Its not about buying stock on Monday and seeing it increase in value during the week then selling on Friday. Trying to compare poker to stock trading just doesn't add up, not the same.

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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Stock trading ( which is all online by the way)is very different then poker which can be played online or live.

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Its not all online. My father still uses the telephone to call his broker for requests regarding his account. He has no online account whatsoever.


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Stock trading is all long term and based on many different fields.

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Flat out wrong. My brother buys and sells daily. How is that long term?

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You gotta be able to read company fincial reports and so on and understand them.

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Wrong again. Thats like saying "You 'gotta' be able to make 10ptbb/100 and ruin fools" if your gonna play online poker. Sure it would be great but being able to read financial reports is not a prerequisite for trading online

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Its not about buying stock on Monday and seeing it increase in value during the week then selling on Friday.

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Once again, an opinion. How about buying stock on monday and selling it on monday? Hate to tell you, but it happens thousands of times a day. To again compare it to poker, its like saying to a donkey "Its not about donking off stacks with top pair in a unraised pot". Could be good advice, but do you think every donkey doing day trading for fun is focused on the long term and not on what they make day to day? I know ive used a lot of examples that are situationally specific to me, but again my brother used to call me up every day saying stuff like "Just made $1500 today" or "[censored] im down 10% today what a beating".

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Trying to compare poker to stock trading just doesn't add up, not the same.

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When you seperate yourself from your opinions I think you will find that the similarities are vast.

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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Its not all online. My father still uses the telephone to call his broker for requests regarding his account. He has no online account whatsoever.



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The broker does it online
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Flat out wrong. My brother buys and sells daily. How is that long term?


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Yes, I forgot about day trading but that deals with more luck factor and long term is a losing way.

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Sure it would be great but being able to read financial reports is not a prerequisite for trading online


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Reading reports is a prerequisite for being a succesfull trader


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Could be good advice, but do you think every donkey doing day trading for fun is focused on the long term and not on what they make day to day? I

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Day traders are donkeys

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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Sure it would be great but being able to read financial reports is not a prerequisite for trading online


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Reading reports is a prerequisite for being a succesfull trader

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My point is that reading reports is not a requirement for day trading.
You obviously agree that its a prerequisite for being succesful (can't be successful without it), and anyone can day trade without having read these reports (uninformed "gambling" on stocks), so why should the government take away online poker whil protecting the rights of day traders?

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

Comparisons aside, the most important difference that exists between online stock trading and online poker has nothing to do with which is less risky or has a greater ROI and more to do with public perception largely created by stereotypes and reinforced by media. The suited monkeys in Washington could really care less about the skillset required to be sucessful at online poker or really what online poker is all about. Most are only motivated to do whatever is necessary to get re-elected and if backing a bill to make online gambling or poker or playing checkers illegal well then so be it. There's not much political incentive to ban online trading so it won't. Reality plays no role here, unfortunately.

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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Stock trading ( which is all online by the way)is very different then poker which can be played online or live. Stock trading is all long term and based on many different fields. You gotta be able to read company fincial reports and so on and understand them. Its not about buying stock on Monday and seeing it increase in value during the week then selling on Friday. Trying to compare poker to stock trading just doesn't add up, not the same.

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I laughed...

Re: Online Stock Trading vs. Online Poker
 

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There's not much political incentive to ban online trading so it won't

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Whats on line trading suspose to mean. ALmost all trading is done via online in one way or another.