About Lotto

By Big Man on May 9, 2009 | Reply

six flags and starbucks also the advanced optics electronics

By Stinkbug B on May 11, 2009 | Reply

the Airline industry

By Sahara on May 13, 2009 | Reply

Gambling is gambling. Investments imply proper consideration and due diligence in terms of looking at the appropriateness for your situation and comfort zone.

If you just throw a dart a board and you have companies listed on the board, that’s gambling.

If you take the time to look at company’s and the industry then that’s investments and not at all comparable to the gambling industry. You have much better odds with the stock market than the casinos.

As a wise person told me, they don’t build those fancy buildings to give money away.

By Brother Otter on May 16, 2009 | Reply

At the moment, funds heavy on internationals are way up and pretty volatile because of US banking problems’ impacts to the global marketplace.
But that could change at any moment…

By Pal on May 18, 2009 | Reply

The slots are honest that they set the machines at a certain percent in favor of the house. The lotto’s are random so there is a formula to calculate your chances of success by howmany tickets are sold.

The markets are an arcane mystery which many people will tell you they know the secrets of and will help you make beacoup de bucks. I would rather play poker with card sharps. At least I can accrue skills and improve my chances of winning over time. And the rules are the same for everybody even if some do try to cheat. The markets are the rudest, push and shove travesty that has ever been put over on the common man by the elite. It is an environment for blood suckers only. If you don’t believe me look at the last week.

By skahhh on May 22, 2009 | Reply

Clearly , Options on stocks are like that. You can make a buy of a bet that a stock will go up or down and not own the underlying security. If the stock swings opposite to your bet, you stand to lose everything you put in your investment in a hurry sometimes. On the other hand, if the stock moves your direction, you stand to make a great deal.

The volatility of these markets goes up and down and time can work against you. The longer you plan to hold such an investment, the more chance you have for losing money. Investing this way only makes a profit in the first half of the betting period and it’s value decreases rather sharply at the end.

It is like predicting the future, and there are so many variables to that future that can push your bet into a negative that it is like betting a lottery ticket sometimes. You can’t be too greedy or you can lose your shirt.

Good question

By makebankken on May 22, 2009 | Reply

The lotto and slots would be defined as huge risk (of losing all of the money you “invest”), huge reward (making a large amount of money compared to the amount of money you invest, i.e. buy a ticket for $5 and win a million dollars). The closest type of investment with this characteristic would be stocks of micro cap companies (defined as very, very small companies, aka penny stocks). These companies can go up 1000% or more in one day, but you can also lose everything you invest in them (similar to “losing” the $5 you “invested” in a lotto ticket that turned out to be a loser). The reason they’re so volatile is that there is a relatively small amount of money invested in them, so when some one adds $100,000 it gets noticed because it’s such a large amount compared to how much money is already there, versus a large cap stock (like General Motors) would hardly notice or respond with big gains with that amount added to it.

By zman492 on May 25, 2009 | Reply

IMHO, what comes closest is buying options for $0.05 per share or less.

You will almost always lose 100% of your investment, you will sometimes makes a small multiple of your investment, and there is a remote chance of making a profit equal to hundreds or even thousands of times your investment.

By Steve R on May 29, 2009 | Reply

Any company with a stock price under $10.