I think trading is also part of gambling. But in the midst of the general public trading is not gambling . I never heard my government forbids people to do trading, even a lot of advertising on tv who advise people to trade in their place. So it could be said trading is part of gambling but it could also be said not, depending from what angle we view it.
If we buy any company share by thinking they can do good business and we can make some profit from those investments, is not directly called as gambling but risky investment. If governments ban this kind of investments, then companies can't raise funds from public to grow their businesses. As you said, some people thinks all risky investments are like gambling, but some think differently.
Yes, it is true. Most of the people think both trading either long or short term are same as gambling. If we think all risky investments are same as gambling then we can't grow our money by keeping them safe. So everyone should need to find suitable investments based on their risk level to grow their money over the time. If not, over the time their money value will go down due to inflation.
