No. I'm also curious, do people in Finance think various forms of gambling (and hedging of speculations) are productive for society.

At least the latter (hedging) is useful, and not only in terms of speculation but also for international trade / market events in general.

Wether risk reduction as financial instrument is productive for society can remain open to interpretation. However, it, without a doubt, has value.

Tbh, finance in general seems to be a major blind spot when it comes to discussions on HN.

> Wether risk reduction as financial instrument is productive for society can remain open to interpretation. However, it, without a doubt, has value.

That's my original point, I don't believe speculation (and tools to reduce the risk of speculation) is productive. At best, it's a hovering up of the value delta between two actors with differential information.

They CERTAINLY have value, for the financial actors using them. Just it isn't a productivity gain for society as a whole. Certainly gambling isn't.

Yes. And what I tried to point out, albeit not very clearly in retrospect, was that hedging is not only applicable and useful in cases that are plainly speculative in nature. E.g. I would like to hedge against the case of Forex fluctuations when doing a large international deal, or delivery delays, or bad harvests, etc.