Trading, particularly short-term "buy low, sell high" strategies, differs fundamentally from businesses that create products or deliver services. In trading, profits are often directly linked to the losses of other market participants, making it a zero-sum activity. In other words, for every winner, there must be a corresponding loser on the other side of the trade.

This dynamic is similar to gambling games like Texas Hold'em poker in a casino setting. While skilled players may consistently profit at the expense of less experienced participants, the overall wealth within the game remains constant. No new value is generated; instead, existing wealth is redistributed among the players based on their relative performance and luck. When research time and fees are added trading is largely “negative sum”.

NOTE: Some trading activities, such as market making and arbitrage, provide liquidity and help maintain fair pricing in financial markets but these operations require expensive low latency market access and are dominated by market insiders and are not possible for retail traders.