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I'm not really game theory expert, but negative sum game is when the total gain is less than total losses, isn't it?

That's exactly what happening - the only source of money are participants, and part of the money goes to brokers.




Say a day trader buys a stock for $9/share and then sells it to me at $10/share a week later. I then put the stock into my investment portfolio and hold on to it for forty years and sell it at $100/share. You could make a simplistic argument that the day trader "lost" the game because he missed out on the appreciation to $100/share but you are neglecting the different investing timespans. The day trader doesn't have a job if he is holding on to stocks for 40 years. He was happy to buy and sell quickly for a small profit. I'm happy because I held on to an appreciating asset. Bankers are happy because they made a few dollars in commissions. No one losses here.


> No one losses here.

But you two are not the whole market. Someone sold a stock to a day trader and someone bought it from you. There are no other money in a stock market except those people bring (minus commission) so how everybody can win?




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