>>> This makes me wonder what kind of trading systems can actually have any kind of edge.
The secret is simply to have an edge.
If you're trading on behalf of clients. You don't care what happens to the market because you don't depend on the high or low to make money.
If you're buying or selling for yourself, same thing. Guess who's buying coal and oil, power plants and refineries and assimilated. They sell what they have and buy what they need.
If you're making money on arbitrage, making sure the New York and the London stock exchange have the same USD to GBP to EUR price and vice versa. You could make money but you better be faster than other corporations and more careful at the same time because you're not the only one doing that. Anytime you buy one side, the other side might have changed because you can balance out.
There are clear factors that drive many markets. When the weather is cold people consume more energy for heating. When it's hot, they go out to make barbecues and buy more sausages. When there is a drought or crop sickness, wiping agriculture exploitation, prices of food and meat go up. That's some examples that are easy to understand.
The stock market is not about speculation. It's about buying real items in the real world and providing services.
The secret is simply to have an edge.
If you're trading on behalf of clients. You don't care what happens to the market because you don't depend on the high or low to make money.
If you're buying or selling for yourself, same thing. Guess who's buying coal and oil, power plants and refineries and assimilated. They sell what they have and buy what they need.
If you're making money on arbitrage, making sure the New York and the London stock exchange have the same USD to GBP to EUR price and vice versa. You could make money but you better be faster than other corporations and more careful at the same time because you're not the only one doing that. Anytime you buy one side, the other side might have changed because you can balance out.
There are clear factors that drive many markets. When the weather is cold people consume more energy for heating. When it's hot, they go out to make barbecues and buy more sausages. When there is a drought or crop sickness, wiping agriculture exploitation, prices of food and meat go up. That's some examples that are easy to understand.
The stock market is not about speculation. It's about buying real items in the real world and providing services.