There are thousands of articles and media reports that equate any type of investing to gambling. When you focus on investing on the Forex or commodities markets there is even more of the inherent prejudice of the mass media to discredit it as an investment and call it gambling. While this is not an accurate depiction of the markets, it may accurately describe many of the people involved in the market. The Forex and Commodities Exchanges are legitimate venues for investors with risk capital. Many of the people that trade in these markets are gamblers rather than investors.
The impression that currency speculation is actually gambling comes from a lack of understanding about the process. The people choosing to call it gambling have some pretty strong facts on their side however. More individuals lose money in the Forex market than make profits and no system is foolproof. These are simple facts but they cloud the real picture. It is the same amount of money be being lost or gained. Every loss or gain results in the opposite loss or gain on the other side of the equation. This does not mean (as some suggest) that it is impossible to profit over the long term based on the structure of the market. The fact that the majority of the profits are made by an overall minority of the investors, it is clear that there is in fact a skill and strategy involved that can be learned and developed.
