Susan Sheridan Tucker was in the first class of Wall Street traders whose broker’s exam covered options back in 1981.
With options, investors have the right but not the obligation to buy or sell shares at a set price and by a specific date. Options often draw comparisons to a bet that a stock will fall or rise.
“I remember raising my hand to the instructor and saying, ‘This just seems like gambling to me,” Sheridan Tucker said. “And he said, ‘Exactly. It’s not investing. It’s gambling.'”
Sheridan Tucker never traded options, but gambling did become her focus as executive director of the Minnesota Alliance on Problem Gambling and the recently elected president of the National Council on Problem Gambling’s board of directors.
