This is a good question that I have thought a lot about over the years.

When I first began trading, a fairly substantial percentage of futures contracts actually ended up in a delivery--certainly more than we see today. Today only 3% of contracts result in delivery.

The economic and social justification for the futures markets is to provide a venue in which producers and users can hedge against excessive fluctuations in price. With hedging as its justification, speculation in futures serves as a way of providing liquidity, efficiency, and price discovery. The speculator serves as the person who is willing to take the risk the hedger wants to avoid. Without that justification, trading futures is nothing more than outright speculation.

However, it is difficult to see how trading a 1, 3, or 5-minute chart meets the criteria for providing liquidity and price discovery for the hedger. Does a producer or consumer need to hedge for only 1 minute? It is hard to argue, on the basis of short-term intraday trading, that anyone is actually providing a social or economic benefit of any kind.

Whereas with longer-term trading it is easy to see the social and economic benefits provided by the speculator, it is virtually impossible to see that such benefits are derived from short-term trading. That renders day trading to be nothing more than speculating. To that extent, the futures markets may have become giant gambling casinos.

That raises a question: What is the difference between the gambler and the speculator?

True speculation is based on taking advantage of the realities of the market. Gambling is an attempt at trying one