2nd try: what is easier, poker or trading?

[djxput]

I voted for poker - BUT When I 'gambled' my thing was black jack.

I actually started my trading career in the casino - played different games like red dog and then moved to black jack where I learned to use strats and to semi count cards etc ...

Funny thing is my money management wasnt that good there and I havent been that good at it in stock/options/futures/forex trading either

I finally stopped playing black jack when I kind of figured out I wasnt making money.

Then one of my professors should me option trading when I was at school ... oh boy

a few blown accounts later

But to answer your question ... black jack was much easier. Cept for all the smoke in the casino (I hated that) ... but then you had to be around a bunch of wierdos sometimes too.

 

[crgarcia]

If you have losses in the stock market, you can always wait to recover. Not recommended, but if can be done.

No casino or friends house would allow you to wait, not even to the next sunrise.

When trading along the main trend, you have more than 50% chances.
When gambling only the house has 50%+

 

[peterdonald]

definitely poker.. less luck..

 

[joebonds]

A talented short stack player can bluff the chip leader into folding.

A talented short stack(smaller) trader doesn't have that option.

A talented short stack player can become the chip leader.

A talented short stack trader rarely becomes the chip leader(check any futures market).

How often does a trader get a suck out on the river?

Sure there are similarities, but in the long haul there is no comparison.

 

[trend_guy]

Quote from Joab:

Howard Lederers Income = maybe 5-10 million max

Stevie Cohens Income = 40 -100 million

Which one would you say is the smarter of the two

40 million maybe 10 years ago

x10-15 and maybe you're in the ball park

 

[onlybui]

Well I been trading for almost a year now, just about break even maybe a small profit to end the year, but I stop playing poker to focus on trading. Been playing no limit poker since 2002, One of the main reasons I stop for a year is because someone would always get lucky on me when I have all my chips in with the best possible hand @ the time, note I use "@ theTIME" and people would aways ask me why I stopped. Luck always blows my poker account. My problem was I never had any money management incorporated in my poker game which I learned from trading. Started playing online again and talk about easy money, in the back of my head its saying maybe you should stick with poker

The stock market has alot of manipulation, In Poker you get to be the one manipulating the other players...

 

[azukar]

Quote from joebonds:

A talented short stack player can bluff the chip leader into folding.

A talented short stack(smaller) trader doesn't have that option.

A talented short stack player can become the chip leader.

A talented short stack trader rarely becomes the chip leader(check any futures market).

How often does a trader get a suck out on the river?

Sure there are similarities, but in the long haul there is no comparison.

Agree. People who think trading is gambling don't understand trading. It's a "game" of pure skill while poker has an enormous luck factor.

 

[candletrader]

I haven't been on these forums for a long while, but I would like to comment...

Trading was highly profitable for me during the bubble when the opportunity factor and R:R ratio made trading a no-lose proposition... directional trading (what I have many year's worth of experience with) is dependent on market conditions... most of the gains from directional trading are made from several hot months and the rest of the year can be dam boring...

For the last several months, I have gravitated towards internet poker, where I multi-table mid-stakes games... every day of the year the conditions for poker are there.... poker has much smaller variance and a much more monotonic equity curve, in my experience...

I have defected from the world of trading to the world of poker, and it is a good thing too...

 

[bestforextrader]

Definitely poker. A lot easier to play..

 

[Pro_Trader720]

Quote from EricP:

I am a professional stock trader, and serious poker player (non-professional). I think that being a poker player is easier than stock trading, since you are more easily able to choose the desired level of competition to be profitable.

For example, a newbie poker wannabie can play in the nickel/dime tables and quickly become profitable. Over time, he/she can 'graduate' to the 10/25 cent tables, all of the way up to the $5/10 tables or higher. If they run into a bad streak, they can drop down a level or two in order to play against weaker competition.

However, with trading, it's you against the market, and you are unable to pick and choose the competence level of your competition. That said, I think that trading is much harder than low stakes poker, and much easier than world class poker. If I were to pick a level, I would estimate that the ease of successful trading might equate to ease of being successful at $5/10 or $10/20 internet (limit) poker.

I completely agree. My edge in poker is that the people I play with are stupid. Now I just need to find stupid people with more money!