First of all, for the technical investors out there, investing can be even more addicting than gambling, because with investing, you actually stand a greater chance of gaining money if you follow some basic principles. The stock market rises over time…it is not a zero sum game. The stock market runs on human production at its base, gambling does not.

Second of all, QuietStorm is wrong that the majority of investing is done by technical investors (maybe the majority of trades, but not the majority of money). The majority of investing is actually done by people who are putting their trust in other people to handle their money wisely. In other words, the majority of investing is done in mutual funds, 401k plans and pension funds. Most of the managers of these funds do not do short-trade technical investing as a primary investing strategy. Most of them do long-term, low-turnover investing in companies that they either see as 1) having high growth prospects or 2) being priced irrationally low.

In both cases, managers project these properties onto the companies based on the abilities of the companies to turn products and services into profits.

Now QuietStorm is right about one thing: most people who invest don’t have the slightest clue about why the stock market works – they’ve just been told to do it because they’ll make more money in equities than elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean that their money isn’t being invested according to some of the sensible principles I discussed above.

Of course some investment managers don’t know what they are doing either, but that doesn’t change what I’ve said.

Let me share the words of the philosopher Richard Taylor:

“[H]uman beings have the capacity to think, reason, and create things. No other creatures do. This is the uniquely human function, the source of all worth, as it is exemplified in people like Beethoven, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Plato, Picasso, as well as singularly resourceful and courageous leaders like Winston Churchill, Malcolm X., Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, and so on. It is people like those who count, that have singular worth, and their virtues are what we should aspire to – not for any utility that derives from them, but because they are uniquely good.”

I have to also decide if I’m making the best use of my time, to put my skills and talents to use, to make the world a better place. (But, sadly, perhaps this IS what Penn best prepares their graduates for. )

Stock trading does not provide the sort of quick high that poker does and therefore does not tend to addict. Once again, I suspect that is why religions don’t view it as negatively.