Ok you guys are right, it's not *technically* a zero sum game because people don't cash out after each trade, but the point is that for me to make $1 there has to be another sucker willing to give up that extra $1. There are no gains without another sucker anteing in. The reason the stock market grows long term is because of population growth, and the stock market/401k/IRA retirement scheme.
Over the short term day trading is more of a zero sum game. If a stock is bouncing around and you're taking gains, someone is taking the losing side of that trade.
Day Trading has survivor bias built into it. Lots of people are losing, they just don't brag about it.
Point is, day trading = Vegas. There are people who can consistently make money day trading or playing poker. Reality is, everyone can't make money day trading because there has to be a loser for each winning trade. You can also wipe out your years work on one bad trade.
If you're read the book, compare stocks to the fastlane. Are you building a brand/company you can sell by daytrading? Unless you're selling shovels to the daytraders, you're not. You're just in another gold rush. Yes you can get rich, but the odds are against you.
Compare this to a company you can build... that gains value over time. That you could exit in a liquidity event. That won't be up $2k one day and down $1k the next. If you're talented at day trading, consider selling shovels to other day traders. Develop educational products. Do seminars or live training. Develop software tools people can use. etc.
Over the short term day trading is more of a zero sum game. If a stock is bouncing around and you're taking gains, someone is taking the losing side of that trade.
Day Trading has survivor bias built into it. Lots of people are losing, they just don't brag about it.
Point is, day trading = Vegas. There are people who can consistently make money day trading or playing poker. Reality is, everyone can't make money day trading because there has to be a loser for each winning trade. You can also wipe out your years work on one bad trade.
If you're read the book, compare stocks to the fastlane. Are you building a brand/company you can sell by daytrading? Unless you're selling shovels to the daytraders, you're not. You're just in another gold rush. Yes you can get rich, but the odds are against you.
Compare this to a company you can build... that gains value over time. That you could exit in a liquidity event. That won't be up $2k one day and down $1k the next. If you're talented at day trading, consider selling shovels to other day traders. Develop educational products. Do seminars or live training. Develop software tools people can use. etc.
Technically that's pretty irrelevant for the individual trader and it's still not true that for every win someone has to lose. The reality is that individual traders can beat the global average and often do and there's nothing strange or irregular about it. Individual traders have different risk appetitites to fund managers who have to be extremely conservative and responsible with other people's money. There are millions of traders each with their own style and commitment. Sorry, but I think you might be drawing a bit of a long bow there, it's not zero sum.
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