Financial myths which are untrue

[DesertCat]

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If I buy your shares from you at a price low enough to ensure an above market return for myself, you might invest the proceeds in an even higher return investment opportunity outside the stock market (real estate, commodities, your own porno web site).

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Veiled fantasy? [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

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No fantasy. I'm going to make it happen! You wait and see, MyFavoriteHookers.com is going to make me rich byatch!

[NajdorfDefense]

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I don't think that randomness in payouts precludes it from being a constant sum game. Poker is a constant sum game(zero sum if there is no rake) even though the payouts are probabilistic. What I mean specifically by constant sum is that the sum of the payoffs for all players is the same for all strategies. Regardless, I don't think the stock market is a constant sum game, but I'm interested if there is an argument to that effect as I'm ignorant of economics.

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it's not a constant sum game. innovation doesn't occur at a constant rate.

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I guess I'm not articulating well enough. Is the trading of stocks a constant sum game--is one trader's gain above the average return a loss for the rest of the traders in the market?

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While Alpha must always = 0 in the market, both sides of a stock trade can be positive-sum. However, one person will be gaining more alpha than the other.