Every time someone hears that I work in the stock market, their first few questions are invariably the same. If I have to categorize the questions then they either assume I know exactly why the market is going up or down and where it is headed in the future or they assume I am just gambling and wasting my time and trying my luck in a zero-sum game. Although I do not know much about gambling, I can surely tell you what trading is and what trading isn’t based on my 3-year full-time experience in trading. Let’s start with understanding why trading in the stock market is often confused with gambling. Possibility of quick money There are so many stories of genuinely successful traders who have made wealth by trading. And who doesn’t want quick and easy money? But, is trading really like Las Vegas casinos which can make you a millionaire or a pauper in a single day? Probably not, it takes much more time and effort than that; both to make and to lose money. And then there are these cr...