Let me also point out three different things and note that they are different.
Thing one is financial services. They are services—they provide you with something in exchange for some sort of a fee. For example, providing an index-tracking mutual fund is a service. If you want to use this service, you pay for it and if the service is sufficiently popular, the provider makes a profit. This is not different in principle from buying the services of, say, a gardener or a car mechanic. Of course, some providers make inflated claims about their services, but that’s hardly limited to finance.
Thing two is investment/trading where you are trying to, basically, extract (more) money out of a market.
Thing three is putting capital to work which, strictly speaking, doesn’t even require markets. If you have some value and you put that value to productive use, you can expect (subject to a large number of caveats) to get some profit. This is not even finance, but basic economics.
Note that in none of these cases anyone is “taking completely randomized actions” or is guaranteed a profit.
Did I actually say? Quote me.
Let me also point out three different things and note that they are different.
Thing one is financial services. They are services—they provide you with something in exchange for some sort of a fee. For example, providing an index-tracking mutual fund is a service. If you want to use this service, you pay for it and if the service is sufficiently popular, the provider makes a profit. This is not different in principle from buying the services of, say, a gardener or a car mechanic. Of course, some providers make inflated claims about their services, but that’s hardly limited to finance.
Thing two is investment/trading where you are trying to, basically, extract (more) money out of a market.
Thing three is putting capital to work which, strictly speaking, doesn’t even require markets. If you have some value and you put that value to productive use, you can expect (subject to a large number of caveats) to get some profit. This is not even finance, but basic economics.
Note that in none of these cases anyone is “taking completely randomized actions” or is guaranteed a profit.