After being on this forum for years a large portion of people have little to no idea why they are buying something outside of the idea that someday they are going to be rich, so yes long term holders too are gambling a lot of times. You seem to have been here a long time. Can we not agree that people buy crypto in which they just hope it goes up? If you ask them why I would reckon some would have no idea what they bought other than the drivel they read in one of the [ann] threads. Throwing your money at that I would consider a gamble, whatever their motives might be. I think we can agree on that right?
Now you are starting to see the light
That gamblers in trading are not inherent to just short-term trading. You seem to accept the fact that they are also present among longer-term traders. Now you have to make the next logical step and understand that the majority of people can't be losing all the time as it is against human psychology and people's ego (apart from die-hard masochists and their likes, of course). But short-term trading is where this becomes evident and pretty fast at that. Then you've got to realize that gamblers can't possibly be the majority of people engaged in the short-term trading. They come and go, and if they don't quit, they go to longer terms and there they accumulate
I never said longer term trading isn't gambling. I dont understand your position
What's wrong with understanding my position?
I think I made it abundantly clear. If all trading is sort of gambling (that remains to be seen, though), then short-term trading (contrary to the public opinion, intuitive thinking and gut feelings) is most likely a form of trading which has the least "gambling" component in it for the reasons stated and explained in the OP. I hope I won't have to reiterate them here all over again
In short no one knows if bitcoin will be higher or lower on Saturday, therefore making it a gamble. Some people use certain methods to narrow down the gamble but its gambling
I guess you may want to revise your understanding of what gambling really is. If you are making decisions on some logical premises or factual information (read, your decisions are not totally at random), this is not gambling even if no one knows what the price of Bitcoin will be on Saturday, whether it will exist at all by the weekend, or even whether you will be proved wrong most of the time
That seems to be the part you are missing in your reasoning