Whenever I trade and make a profit, does someone else lose?
For example, I've been watching an altcoin market for three years and knew that a certain currency always triples in value going from x to 3x in a couple of months. Having spare money avaliable I put some in to test the strategy and I'm close to my 3x at the moment.
My question is, whenever I trade and make a profit is there always going to be someone who's made a loss or is this an odd way of thinking? Could it be that these people are losing a small amount of money or that these people are buying a coin by going (I'll put 10% in that) so as to not really matter if it profits or. Loses as it generated a stable ish value.
Yes, it is that simple and if you win big then that means that many people lost money in order for you to get those profits, that is an obvious aspect of trading that many miss since they enter in the market thinking it will be impossible for them to lose not realizing they are going to be the ones that will give profits to someone else, trading is a zero sum game, everytime you buy a coin thinking that it will go up in value there is someone else selling the same coin that thinks the opposite.
There's no assurance than to understand the market, knowing that there's always an opposite against you will give you challenge to do extra efforts, each time you place your entry another person is placing its own opposite to your directions, so it's accurately true that each time you win someone will need to lose, a concept of gambling where everything is not just for luck but skills and knowledge that you have.