I tried gambling on the stock market years ago, and only ever lost money. The thing is that the value of stocks has almost nothing to do with the quality, innovativeness or technological superiority of the products being sold by companies, so as such it's very difficult to get a handle on things without delving into the world of rumour and gossip - something which I have very little inclination or aptitude for.

I even wrote software to predict stock prices using fancy techniques, but also found that this is no panacea. My conclusion is that the markets are only predictable on a very short time scale, so unless you're investing in large volumes of stock it's unlikely that automated systems are going to help you. Worse, there are many factors of a very human psychological nature which are just extremely difficult to design into the prediction system.

Also buying and selling stocks is just another form of gambling - like betting on horses or football teams - so the same rules apply. If you can't afford to lose it, don't gamble it away.