Dexter's career involves stock market speculation, but Kate feels that it seems like a gamble. What is your view on the topic?

Dexter's career involves stock market speculation, but Kate feels that it seems like a gamble, more like a game than a legitimate profession. To what level do you get involved with the stock market, and what is your view on the topic?

Dexter’s career involves the illegal use of insider trading, private protected information and sheer bravado. Kate is right to be nervous about his gambling, but she does not really do anything to correct or prevent his misdeeds even when she is fully aware of them.

I think stock market speculation is fine. Learning about buying and selling stocks can be fun and exciting and is a good way to make money grow. What is not OK is insider trading.

Stock market speculation takes a special skill and if you do it legally, it is a respected profession. Insider trading is not okay.

It's always felt like gambling to me, and I still look at my retirement fund as "funny money," aware that it could completely disappear and there would be nothing I could do about it. Although I know a lot of people who manage their own portfolios, I'm a lot more comfortable allowing someone whose job it is to understand the ins & outs of money management handle it even though I'm paying that person to do so.

Personally, I would not be comfortable dabbling in the stock market because it is something I know very little about, nor do I understand. When Dexter began his speculations (The Expats), he seemed to approach it in a much more ethical manner- -he actually had boxes and boxes of information about the companies he was interested in that he studied.

After accusing Kate of being unfair in the social media question, i'm going to show myself as a real hypocrite here. I can't help but feel negatively about speculators. It is precisely because of Dexter's behavior in The Paris Diversion that I feel this way. Yes, I am generalizing myself. We hear very little about the "little guys", who play honestly and win. Rather, there seems to be a lot of abuse in the system, and it seems the biggest abusers are rarely punished.

Dexter's gamble is affording Kate a pretty nice lifestyle though.

Dexter is clearly gambling. He depends upon information that he gets and not always on the up and up. He is as secretive as Kate, but his secretiveness seems more sinister. Kate is working to protect her family and others which requires her secrecy, but Dexter acts like a conman.

First of all insider trading is wrong. Stocks are hard to follow sometimes and you can lose a lot or all in a short time. It is a gamble. But Dexter thought he knew it all.

Although Dexter and Kate live a very luxurious lifestyle it all hangs by a thread. The book clearly shows Kate supports the family and Dexter has risked and overcharged everything. He is gambling. It is legal until he uses insider information. It is legal but risky and potentially destructive when he gambled with funds he cannot afford to lose.

As I've read through some of the responses, and even reread my own- -I'm wondering if Dexter even realizes that what he has done, accepting the tip, is wrong. Dexter's first career was cyber security. He is a self taught speculator. Is chatting with a friend about a business deal truly insider trading or is it two friends helping each other out? Maybe Dexter, who strikes me as a naive sort, really believes the "tip" he received from Luc is harmless. I've considered this due to the fact that he ended up sharing what he was doing with Kate, albeit reluctantly, once she pressed him.

The stock market has always been risky, you can make a lot of money, or lose a lot of money. I was in an investment group for several years where we each researched multiple companies to determine if we wanted to purchase their stock. Decisions were made by the group of 12, and it was a learning experience. I dropped out of the group because I didn't enjoy researching and there seemed to be no criteria that consistently picked good stocks. To play the market you need to be a risk taker and lucky or else diversify so you can't lose, but you will never make money that way either.

Stocks are an investment--stock market trading is a profession. Both involve careful analysis of trends but it is not fool proof and can earn large amounts of money or cause loss of money. In that regard, since the market is a fluctuating, fluid entity, one should be prepared to invest and then let it be--ups and downs should be ridden. BUT, how much to invest is the tricky part. Conservative investment in established stocks or in stocks of a established product or service is not a great gamble. Dexter was taking a gamble and she was right to be wary--he also was illegally trading--an even bigger gamble.

What a pair!

Dexter engages in illegal insider trading and there is a reference to the time before this book (maybe in the previous Kate Moore book, which I haven't read) that he also outright stole money in the past. This is quite different from taking risks in the stock market, which can be legitimately lucrative, if one isn't too risk-averse.In Kate's place, I'd be more concerned about the illegal nature of much of Dexter's activity.

Dexter was doing more than speculation. He was gambling with their money. She had a right to be nervous and not fully trust him.

Stock market speculation is absolutely a gamble. With financial markets, higher rewards are related to higher risks. If you are told otherwise, you should beware and run in the other direction. Dexter was, to be honest, though, involved in what he thought was insider trading, which is not legal. I've long thought that the US should incorporate financial literacy into primary and secondary education. There are far too many people dabbling without understanding what they can lose.