Thou shall not speculate.

The Mahabharata is a scripture which conveys all the eternal teachings in a story form hence, guides us to differentiate right from wrong.

With the example of the Pandavas who lost everything in gambling, the scriptures tell us that those who cheat are winners in gambling-- like shakuni who was on the side of the kauravas, cheated and made the pandavas lose all.

After the war the Kauravas lost everything they had won 

So the scripture clearly warns us that 

(1) one cannot win by gambling 

(2) those who cheat win

(3) Further no one can keep the wealth he has earned by gambling—it brings no true benefit. Ultimately one loses all such accumulated wealth.

Because only virtue can bring true benefit—hard work is virtue which brings benefit not gambling.

I am writing this article because now a days speculation has become a trend in the shares and commodities markets—the so called futures trading.

Futures trading or trading in other derivatives is when you buy more than the money you have and sell the things you do not have.

Example—if one feels that the price of share or commodity is going to go up he will buy the quantity for which he does not have money, so he cannot take delivery he can only adjust the loss or profit as per price fluctuation.

Similarly if he feels that the price of share or commodity is going to go down he will sell it without possessing the same again he will adjust only the profit or loss again as per price fluctuation

The powerful who can manipulate the markets for a certain time are the winners rest common man lose all.

However markets are eternal, they were present since eternity they will always be there, so no one can manipulate them for long.

In the seventy’s the billionaire bunker brothers and the royal family of Saudi Arabia; speculated in silver it ended in a disaster. 

Time and again we hear big names that control the markets but they all vanish.

Futures markets are for a legitimate purpose of booking trades in advance to safe guard against price fluctuations or for hedging that is safe guarding against risks----people who just try to make fast money always lose.

I have learned this the hard way; if after reading my article it brings about a change in someone, it will make me very happy.