Equity trading

Personally I totally disagree.
It is not gambling but real trading.
There is a predictable economin model and everybody know about economic cycle and the trend during the cycle.
The economy just started to get better and trend during 3 yaers will be climbing UP.

trading is gambling ...
- "everybody knows about economic cycle" ... yea, it's all in hundreds of books and university courses of course... however, there are more people loosing money while more banks are making money... unless you are a banker - you have more chances to loose... reminds me a casino :-)
- "economy just started to get better and trend during 3 yaers will be climbing UP" ... yea, it is written on every wall... Rezar, what are you playing, or trading by your definition? buying another Nortel?

Some of my close friends lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trading....

Marina, you probably remember world "speculator" back from our home country... Interestingly, that is exactly what Canadian Securities Institute call traders who are not hedging their positions. Now, how many retail traders/investors hedge their positions? I know how institutional do - but even then it is practically impossible to hedge with every move in the market.... which makes almost every trader on the earth a "speculator" or gambler ;-), unless of course if one invest in GIC ...