Quote from: puwaha on November 17, 2014, 11:40:10 PM

Quote from: alienesb on November 17, 2014, 10:14:59 PM

If you think investing is gambling I can't talk to you. In fact, I'm just gonna ignore you new sock-puppet from Mt. Gaw.

Investing is a zero-sum game. Look that up sometime. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Those who are good at gaming the system end up winning more in the long run... all at the expense of others.

Typical wall-street investing/gambling requires ever-increasing sums of fiat to keep propping up profits and returns... hmmm... sounds a lot like a giant ponzi to me.

Investing in the stock market isn't a zero-sum game. If that was true there would never be a bear market and bull markets would be unlikely too. You would only see market increases when new shares were sold. Clearly it isn't a zero sum game. Vast amounts of wealth are created and sometimes destroyed by the stock market. Option contacts are closer to a zero-sum game, but the not stock. Stock value depends on how much profit a company makes.

You could say each transaction is a wash of value, not completely true but it is very close to true. Fees and spread means there is always a slight loss of value unless the all the parties in the transaction are considered.