Perhaps too, that investment presumes a win-win rather than zero sum.
References :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Value-Growth-Investing-Strategies-Investors/dp/0273656252/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201345536&sr=8-2

and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intelligent-Investor-Benjamin-Graham/dp/0060555661/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1201345626&sr=8-1

These books clearly distinguish between what makes an investor over a gambler.

The investor chooses a sound company with good earnings and good earnings potential. He buys it at the right price and holds on to it, happy in the knowledge that whatever happens to the price of the share, he’s still got a good buy, and there’s no reason to sell it unless the fundamentals of the company have changed.

A gambler would put more significance on the price of the share, and focus more on "betting" that it’ll go up or down, which is rarely a wise strategy.

If you think about it, the reason gamblers tend to lose is because it’s hard to know when to stop playing. They can be on a winning streak, having found a system they think works well. So if the system works, why stop? So they keep going. Eventually the system breaks down and then they stop when they lose. So they’ll only ever walk away with a loss.

However, if you’re not speculating, but investing in a good company, the shares can go up, down, all over the place and it doesn’t matter. You don’t stop when you’re losing. If you’ve got a good company there is rarely any need to sell it. So you don’t stop and pull out when you’re losing, because you’re sure it will go up again. And that’s why it’s an investment and not gambling.
References :

With investing, your money is put to work to create goods & services, and if the place you invested it in does so well it becomes profitable and there is a net gain in wealth.

What investments do have is risk. There are all kinds of risks invovled with investing, and different investments have different kind of risks. Professional money managers are more risk managers than anything else.

But what about these derivatives? OK, yes by themselves most derivatives are a zero sum game. But derivatives derive their value from some other investment. The purpose of derivatives is to allow investors to tailor the risk profile of an investment to suit their need. One party takes on certain risks & returns of the investment, while another party gives up risks & returns related to the investment.

Its all part of the great global world of finance.
References :

For the people who make the rules, namely the investment banks and other entities in the finance world, it’s NOT a gamble.

That’s why I always tell people if they REALLY want to make money, or at least know what’s going on, they need to work in an investment bank.

Move to Wall Street and get a job. Then you’ll have a clue. You may not become richer, but you will have a better understanding and not make the mistakes that the uninformed make.

Even though I offer a website explaining some simple trading rules … I offer this because people will want to trade, no matter how bad it is for their financial health … I strongly recommend you DON’T TRADE.

Unless you know what you are doing, which means that you have inside knowledge, which in all likelihood means you are not posting questions on yahoo.

Trading or investing is not going to net you anything at all in the long run, unless you are prepared. Being prepared does not mean reading books on investing or trading, it does not mean conducting research, believe me. Being prepared means having the inside knowledge that comes from working in the business, not trying to guess it from the outside.

But if you are stubborn and want to trade or invest, then I suggest some simple strategies to MINIMIZE the damage you do to yourself. Those are on the website: http://commonsensetrading.googlepages.com

These strategies will work for ANYONE because they do not require a background in finance or mathematics … which would be most of the readers here.

The sole reason I answer questions on yahoo is to help uninformed people MINIMIZE the damage they do to their wallets that comes from following the plethora of misleading advice that gets thrown at them.

The best way to minimize the damage is to NOT TRADE.

Put your money into interest bearing instruments. Save money. Reduce your debt. Get promotions at work. Increase your education. Any of these Risk-Free methods for improving your finances are better alternatives.
References :

This evidence that the odds are in your favor is why strategies exist such as "buy index mutual funds and hold long term". To use such a strategy is to give up all hope of outperforming the market in exchange for a reasonable expectation of matching the long term performance of stocks. If the long term trend were flat or negative, "buy-and-hold" would have disastrous results. But we optimistically expect the long term upward trend to continue and reap the benefits of returns of about 10% per year.
References :

Investing you don’t lose all your money. You can lose and gain it back.

Investing for me using a card sense would be like this. There are 5 card players at the table. I get to see everyone’s hand. If someone has a great hand and consistently knows how to win, I am going to give him my money in return for more later on hopefully. You might gain some, lose some but over time hopefully you will have more money when you decide to cash out.

Investing is researching great companies and deciding that it is a company worth buying into. Gambling is guessing with most odds against you and hoping that you get lucky.
References :

Get that book, throw away that Investing for Dummies book (sorry I couldn’t have stopped you before you bought it) and be a humble learner from this master, William J. O’Neill.

Best of success, for it will be yours if you learn the right tools to use, and leave the garbage behind.
References :
http://www.investors.com