Trading vs Gambling – Is there a Difference?

Put a  trader in a group of non-traders and the conversation will inevitably turn to gambling.   At a recent family gathering I was asked about my share trading by an interested (or polite) family member, to which I responded with my usual cheery, ‘Good thanks!”
I had just mentioned that we were planning on selling our house and using the money to trade with, when a bystander with good hearing said rather loudly ‘Put it on Black!
These situations come up rather a lot, in fact some of my closest friends have expressed their thought that in the stock market it’s all luck and pretty much a 50/50 bet.  And for them, it probably would be.  Meanwhile I quietly bit my knuckle (hard) to stop myself from climbing a-top my soap box.  Because it was a dinner party, after all.
It seems the general population (in particular men in their forties on grand final day) don’t seem to consider a few quite important points, including but not limited to the fact that -

1. It is highly offensive to be considered a gambler, particularly when you’ve just said your selling your house for funds.
2. As traders we might have a slightly better idea of how the markets work than they do.
3. A ‘girl’ in her extremely early thirties could have any knowledge at all of things they themselves don’t understand.

So, what is the difference between Trading and Gambling?

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