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Trying a Day Trading Simulator Made Me Realize Day Trading is Really GAMBLING, Not Investing


Many times, I really wanted to avoid stocks and later decided to get some financial management help. That's why I bought the AXA Chinese Tychoon Fund which invests primarily in blue chip Filipino-Chinese companies. I remembered my MBA days when I heard about stocks. What I always saw with stocks was pretty much the motions of day trading. I decided to overcome a degree of fear and did some research. 

I decided to try a simulator to try and learn how to trade stocks. The big problem with a day-trading simulator is pretty much deciding on random movements. I did download a few business games on Google Play to try it. I tried the simulator and found out that if I used real money--I could've lost a lot already. The simulated money was USD 10,000.00. Now, I tried to keep my bets and one wrong move meant I could lose all that money. Good thing it wasn't real money.

What truly disturbed me though is how day trading is even encouraged. I ended up landing on the name of Charlie Munger. Munger called it a speculative orgy. I couldn't help but agree. As Warren Buffet says, "If you're not willing to own a stock for ten years, don't think of owning it for ten minutes." The simulator would have the buy-sell-buy-sell position. It's really almost like I'm playing mahjong or poker instead of investing. Yet, people do it because there's a thrill in it. There's more thrill in gambling and investing.

I check my AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund only to discover it's not making the fast millions. I heard some people can make fast millions in day trading. The downside though is pretty much that you could also lose millions so fast as a result. That's why I'd rather invest, and hold a fund maybe for at least five years (and another for ten years) instead of playing mahjong with the stock market. 

References

Websites

"Day Trading Definition: Why It Differs From Investing" by Sam Swenson, CFA, CPA (Updated: June 28, 2022)
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