Quote:
Originally Posted by iminhell1
What bucket is stock in?
Commodities?
Land?
My definition of investing is tangible things. Land, commodities or the like. Stocks are gambling.
Buffet is a good gambler. He's done well to bet on things that people will need and need more of in the future, services, energy, etc.
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Any of those things you mentioned can be a means for gambling if you behave as a flipper (buying something for the sole reason to sell it to someone else for a profit).
Stocks are an excellent way to invest your money (if done through a broad market, no-load, low turn over, low expensive ratio, tax efficient index fund) - investing at its core foundation is pouring capital into companies to help them produce good/services which benefits the world; thus, by growing the economy as a whole (increase in GDP), you then end up with your share of the profits in the form of capital gains and dividends. It's worked FABULOUSLY well as a long term investment for over a century. I struggle to name something else where you can simply put money into, do absolutely NOTHING, and then get an inflation adjusted return of ~7-8% (Not to mention the magic of compound interest...)
Also, idk if I would categorize Warren (and Charlie) as a 'gambler.' They are/were true investors. They buy good companies in sectors they understand which have an 'edge' against their competitors and hold onto them for decades, if not eternity. Warren and Charlie's favorite holding period for the S&P 500 index fund is, forever. In other words, they are not speculators (which is why they don't dabble in commodities like Bitcoin).
I think the better person to categorize as a gambler would be someone like Ray Dalio who ran the world's largest hedge fund and constantly (in his words) "played the markets."