Why be an option/futures/day trader when it is zero-sum?
xlnt: speculation done right consists of creating knowledge about what resources will be in what demand in the future, and then saving resources that are cheap now but will be expensive later. doing this raises the price a bit now (b/c you buy a bunch) and lowers it then (b/c supply is higher then). you make money smoothing out price fluctuations. this is a valuable service -- price fluctuations can really hurt people or companies that don't have spare money at the moment.there is a limit on how much total money can be made doing this. the more people do it, the less price fluctuations are available to even out.but anyway, there are good types of trading.