The Enjoyment of Winning Together

From the Baltimore Clubhouse – Vegas, baby!

I recently spent a weekend in Las Vegas with a few college buddies.

I like to gamble a bit – in a conservative way, of course. It seems to me that if you do it smartly, you can have fun and even win most of the time. On my previous trip to Sin City, my winnings paid for my flight from Baltimore and back.

I’ve been to Las Vegas about a dozen times. And when I was younger, I played mostly blackjack and slots.

But now I play only craps.

Yes, it’s true that craps offers the best odds you can find on the casino floor. So you’ll see some of the smartest gamblers at the craps table.

But that’s not why I play it. I play it for the social aspect.

A good craps table is a community of gamblers, all aligned against the house.

There are exceptions, of course, with the occasional contrarian going against the crowd. But in my experience, everybody at the craps table is usually united against the dealer and the house. You all win together or lose together.

And when you win, the fact that you’re part of a winning team makes it so much more enjoyable. It’s not unusual to see people high-fiving and hugging after a successful roll of the dice, with everyone enjoying their shared good fortune.

I personally have given some serious hugs and high-fives at a craps table.

I was thinking about this when I interviewed options trader Bryan Bottarelli last week about his new online trading service. (You can read that interview here if you’re interested.)

Bryan’s new service – called The War Room – will focus on stock options and other short-term investing opportunities. And of course, the experience Bryan and fellow trader Karim Rahemtulla bring to the service make it smart speculation, not gambling.

So it’s quite different from craps in that way.

But there is one big similarity: community.

I’ve gotten to know Bryan a bit since Oxford Club CEO and Executive Publisher Julia Guth introduced us a year ago. And I’ve learned that he likes to reminisce about his early trading days at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the community of traders he enjoyed being a part of.

Unfortunately, the emergence of electronic trading has eliminated that kind of camaraderie. So trading is now an isolated and individualistic venture for most traders.

But The War Room goes a long way in walking that back. I know because Bryan sent me a login to the beta version of his new trading site.

I spent some time in The War Room over the last few weeks and found it to be much different from other trading sites I’ve seen.

It’s a community of traders, all using the chat function to interact, trade ideas and strategies, and, yes, give digital high-fives when there’s a winner.

I have to tell you it’s a lot of fun. Even if I don’t make the trades, I really enjoy the community.

So if you’ve experienced the excitement and joy of winning together with a bunch of like-minded folks, you might want to check it out.

To learn more about Bryan’s exciting new trading service, sign up to watch Bryan Bottarelli’s 7-Figure Trader Summit for free. Just click here and add your name to the list. 

Good investing,

Matt