Difference between "trading" and "gambling"

[burntheory]

You need to add the time element to the trading. So something could start at the right price, drift out and end exactly where it started. Value bettors made nothing but the trade made a good trade.

Interesting observation. How would that work?

If BF were to offer markets on coin tosses, for instance, why wouldn’t gamblers just place their back orders at 2.02 and see if they get matched? Even if they were paying the full 5% commission, they’d have a positive expectation of 0.95% and an expected 50% strike rate.

Whilst a skilled backer might not be attracted by the risk/reward ratio of the above scenario, it doesn’t follow that there’s no value to be had, surely.

As a variation of the OP, it would be interesting to speculate what the split is between 'gamblers' and ‘traders’ in the x% of the BF population who are regular, long term winners.

[Derek27]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned on this now lengthy topic, is that most gamblers will avoid premium charge. You would need to make about 33% profit on stakes to be hit by PC.