Why for some people, Stock Market Investing IS gambling
Investing in the stock market is not supposed to be gambling. It is supposed to be about making an investment and seeing your money grow over time. Unfortunately a lot of people treat it just like gambling. You can definitely gamble on the stock market if you choose to, but it is not a good idea.
The main reason that for some people stock market investing is gambling is that they have way too short of a time frame. Over time you expect that the stock market will increase however there will be short term fluctuations. There are a lot of people who jump from stock to stock hoping to take advantage of these fluctuations. The people who do this are gambling in part because the odds that would normally be in their favor if they bought and held stocks no longer are and in part because over the short term the change in the price of a stock often occur for no good reason.
The fact the price of stocks change over short periods of time is a major issue if you are only holding the stock for a short time. Over time well run successful companies will see the value of their stock increase and poorly run ones will see the price decline. This is something that investors can predict however if you are buying and selling on short term fluctuations you are basing your decisions on nothing but chance and at that point you are gambling not investing.
Another reason that stock market investing is gambling for a lot of people is that they put all of their money into a very small number of stocks, often in the same industry. Diversification is important for an investor, not every stock you pick will go up in addition some industries will be strong while others are weak. This is why you want to be invested in a number of different stocks spread across several different industries. If your portfolio lacks diversification you are gambling on the few stocks that you have increasing. This is too big of a risk for an investor to take. You have to know that some of your stocks will go up and others will go down.
Stock market investing for is gambling for a lot of people because they don't understand the basic concepts of money management. You have to know how to make sure that you are limiting your risk when you invest your money. You also have to make sure that you have a plan. You need to know what you are going to buy and why you are buying it. You also need to have a plan for when you are going to sell. A lot of people put a lot of thought into what to buy but almost no thought into the much more important decision of when to sell. If you are doing this then you are gambling.