are there any gamblers here? or for that matter "investors"

[jefhatfield]

...same thing anyway and dot.com showed the world that

in northern california, i know of only one person personally that made any money in dot.com but he was a VC and he was involved in insider stuff like they usually are...and made millions taking over companies and selling it for its parts like danny devito's character in "other people's money"

i personally don't like to gamble but the time i went to las vegas, i played the slots and nothing happened...then at the airport on the way back to california, i hit three jackpots...but they were nickels so it wasn't a big deal but it was a major rush anyway

i know of two people who gave up coffee in the morning and spend two of three dollars on lottery tickets and even though they spent over ten grand over the years each, sometimes they would win 3 grand or a thousand or five hundred a few times...but overall they lost more than they won by at least 30 percent

but it's still more lucrative to win seven grand back out of ten grand spent (two or three dollars at a time) instead of spending ten grand on coffee and cigatettes over a ten year time period and having weakened health as a result and getting no money back in return...when my friends would win five hundred to several thousand on a ticket, they would go on vacation or buy a new tv or something...again contrast that against the equally expensive cigarette or coffee habit they gave up in exchange for lotto or scratchers

so you say that a 70 cent return on a dollar is a waste? maybe so, but better than dot.coms and stocks have given back in general over the past few years...my friend put tons of money into all kinds of stocks a few years ago going for medium to aggressive investment approaches...and for the the late 90s into 2000, he did well...then the sh## hit the fan and he, along with millions of other americans, have not recovered yet

a few months ago, one of wall street's top investors was a guest on abcnews radio and he pulled out of the market before the fall and has not put a dime back into stocks, bonds, or anything in the investment field in three years...he retained his earnings but has not made a dime since then but he did mention that, even so, he did better than any investor in america...he was the only major investor/commentator/writer in financial circles who completely avoided dot.com and tech stocks and even though there were other big time investment gurus who warned others to stay clear of high tech, he was the only one who actually steered clear of it:p

ps... a relative i know made a good deal of money in real estate in the 70s only to lose it all and rack up mind boggling debt...after paying off debts and breaking even...he supposedly learned his lesson and remained rather happy and stable living paycheck to paycheck

then dot.com arrived and he made even a larger fortune and lost it in a few days when the bubble of dot.com and high tech burst but at least this time, he ended up at zero and not hundreds of thousands in debt...again, he is happy living paycheck to paycheck and having amassed two short lived fortunes quickly, only to see it evaporate twice even more quickly, i hope he has learned his lesson:p

[trebblekicked]

my gambling experience is limited to two nights at atlantic city. i came out like $80 ahead, but i'm such a cheap bastard i got buyers remorse when i put a $20 bill into a nickel slot machine. i guess i'm not cut out for that kind of thing.

as for investing, i've never had the money to invest in anything other than my own business (which i still don't trust, but at least i can keep an eye on it), so i don't care much for the stock market.

investment is something i don't understand and don't care to quite yet. gambling is something i just can't do.

[eyelikeart]

I don't care much for gambling. I've been to the casinos around here, and it's kinda trashy IMO. I've been to Vegas, but was like 3 years old when I went, so that doesn't count. I do want to go back with a wad of cash to play around with, but who knows when it'll happen.

As for investment, that's a different story. I tend to go for things that I know will increase in value for me, rather than trying to make something off a purchase of shares. Lately, I've been putting a lot of money into mutual funds that pay monthly dividends. I've done better with these purchases the past couple years than the stock shares. ;)

[wdlove]

I'm not a gambler, unless you count buying a ticket for charity.

I 'm not really an invester, don't understand it. It is done at a lot of risk. I do have an investment in my house. Have items that I collect that are valuable like art and plates.

[eyelikeart]

I hear that, I don't understand a lot of it either. However, being that my mother is my broker, it helps out tremendously. ;)

[Sun Baked]

The odds of winning and losing, hmm...

You're a gambler if you play the Lotto, where your $1-5 risked can turn into $millions.

But you're an investor, if the $millions of dollars you risk on WallStreet can turn into $1-5.

---

If you play the Lotto too much, they call it a sickness.

If you play WallStreet too much, they call it a career.

---

Lose $5-10k on Lotto during the year, and your co-workers stop lending you money.

Lose $5-10k on WallStreet, and your co-workers may shower you with money.

---

etc. :rolleyes:

[Frohickey]

Gambling...
All the odds favor the house, even more so with slot machines. Why do you think that they have more floor space for slot machines than they do for blackjack tables? When I go gamble, I go in saying that the money that I gamble with is already spent. I'm just holding it for the casino. When I win, its because the casino gave me a refund.

Investing...
Here, you have homework to do. Unless you are doing domestic municipal bonds, where the bond issuer have a captive slave population with which to repay your bonds with, you need to research the company's performance, both current and future. The dot-com crash wasn't that surprising. The only thing surprising about it is when it it going to come back down. Lets see. You have companies sucking up VC dollars, with a business plan that does not generate profits, but only tries to get market share. Its no wonder that it crashed.

[Phil Of Mac]

I play poker with the fellows in my dorm.

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Sun Baked
The odds of winning and losing, hmm...

You're a gambler if you play the Lotto, where your $1-5 risked can turn into $millions.

But you're an investor, if the $millions of dollars you risk on WallStreet can turn into $1-5.

---

If you play the Lotto too much, they call it a sickness.

If you play WallStreet too much, they call it a career.

---

Lose $5-10k on Lotto during the year, and your co-workers stop lending you money.

Lose $5-10k on WallStreet, and your co-workers may shower you with money.

---

etc. :rolleyes:

in the social work i have done with heroin addicts...i have seen some investors and gamblers who are actually in as bad as shape with the sweating, shaking, and out of control behavior that can come with an addiction...i can spot all the signs and the brokers i sometimes see who focus on high risk investments are exactly the same as the herion junkies who sell their bodies or sell drugs and carry arms for a living

the funny thing is that society will be much more forgiving of a VC than a hitman for the cartel but in essence, in their very soul, they are the same thing...the movie training day was a fascinating look into the "fine line" mentality i ponted out, but this time in the context of cops and robbers and i would hate to be an undercover cop in the drug world

i knew a man who did this for one day after receiving his degree in criminal justice and he actually could not tell the difference between his coworkers and the perps he was trying to catch

:p