Is there a hard threshold? Do high risk investments such as penny stocks qualify as gambling? Do low risk investments? Annuities? Bonds? CDs?

This comment got me wondering.

Is it more to do with the venue? Stock markets and real estate vs casinos and the lottery?

Were the MIT Blackjack Team gambling or investing?

Or Jerry and Marge Selbee?

Is this just another semantic hotdogs are sandwiches discussion or is there an agreed threshold?

  • listless@lemmy.cringecollective.ioEnglish
    7·
    2 years ago

    At least as close as anything can be guaranteed in this world

    Turns out “close to guaranteed” is in fact, not “guaranteed.”

    So much so that if you pick any 25 year period over the last 200 years, you won’t find a single instance where the total value of the all traded stocks was worth less at the end than at the start.

    Here’s my 25 how did they do:

    • Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
    • Washington Mutual Inc.
    • General Motors Corporation
    • Enron Corporation
    • WorldCom Inc.
    • CIT Group Inc.
    • Chrysler LLC
    • Thornburg Mortgage Inc.
    • Conseco Inc.
    • MF Global Holdings Ltd.
    • Energy Future Holdings Corp.
    • Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)
    • Toys “R” Us Inc.
    • Sears Holdings Corporation
    • Blockbuster Inc.
    • Eastman Kodak Company
    • American Airlines (AMR Corporation)
    • Frontier Communications Corporation
    • Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
    • JC Penney
    • Peabody Energy Corporation
    • RadioShack Corporation
    • Remington Outdoor Company
    • Pier 1 Imports Inc.
    • Purdue Pharma L.P.

    (hint: they’ve all filed for bankruptcy at some point)

    Again, look at the Nikkei from the 1990’s - that’s an entire index that was flat for 30 years. Hard to put off retirement for 30 years waiting for that index fund to pay off.

    Don’t bother dying on this hill, son, there’s plenty of other, nicer hills to die on.

    • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      “All traded stocks” isn’t “Any traded stock”.
      It’s all of them collectively.

      Nikkei from the 1990’s - that’s an entire index that was flat for 30 years.

      The 1990’s was only 10 years. And that’s also just Japan, which again isn’t “All Traded Stocks”.

    • Moneo@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 years ago

      I don’t disagree with the general point of, “there’s no guarantee”. But I think you can make an argument that taking the safest course available to you is not gambling.

      When talking about longer time frames you have to account for inflation, holding on to your money instead of investing it is a risk in itself, which makes this entire conversation about semantics.