Speculation is gambling, plain and simple. And with gambling, one win makes you want a second, then a third — and each time, the stakes will almost certainly grow (that’s greed at work), never mind all the talk of setting your profits aside and playing only with your principal.
Worse, when the losses run deep — when your gains melt away and you slip into the red — that’s exactly when the greediest part of human nature awakens: now you have to win back at least what you lost. To start gambling is to set out on a road that allows no turning back.
So if I ever nailed a short-term bet on a stock and walked away 50% richer, I would only push further and further down that road — and the road ends, without fail, in ruin. Human nature decides this, not intelligence. If anything, the smarter you believe you are, the worse it gets.
And never forget: a single fire is all it takes to destroy a forest that spent years growing.
Newton could chart the orbits of the heavens, but never the greed of the human heart.
I can see straight through a gambler’s life, yet sometimes I can’t fathom why, in my own, I play hands that defy all explanation!
Oh humanity! Oh life! Let the unexpected come down on me like hail! Let it wake me! Let me feel the magnificent suffering of being alive!