[extropy-chat] Noisy future day (was: silent night)

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "Robin Hanson" <rhanson at gmu.edu>
> For every winner there is a
> loser.  If I buy IBM and it goes up I win, but only because the person I
> bought it from lost.

Depends.  Sometimes you buy from a "short" position, in which case you may
have bought (and subsequently profited) from someone who sold to you when
the stock was going down (and from which *that* person profited, because
that's how a short position works - *one can lose one's shirt on a short*,
in other words, if the stock goes *up!*).

Also, there could be several players profiting from a stock on the way up
(in a long position).  Several players can profit, each one selling "too
soon."  But a profit is a profit (so it does not always follow that the
person from whom you may have bought IBM necessarily lost).

Olga