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@ Andrew G. Stanton
2025-05-26 20:56:42Why Trading Matters (And Why It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game)
There’s a common belief — even in some Bitcoin circles — that short-term trading is just gambling. That it’s a zero-sum game where one trader’s win is another’s loss.
I get it. The noise is real. So is the wreckage from over-leveraged bets and mindless speculation.
But that’s not the whole story.
Recently, someone I worked with in 2023 and 2024 — a former mortgage broker — invited me to join an “investment club” that sends buy/sell signals through WhatsApp.\ Just follow the messages. Don’t think. Don’t learn. Just click and hope.
That’s not trading.\ That’s waiting on an oracle and outsourcing your judgment. It’s faith in hype, not process. It’s anti-skill.
Another friend told me my approach — aiming for consistent, small intraday gains — sounded boring. But here’s what I told him:
If I trade a $100 stock ten times in a day for a $1–2 gain each time, I’ve made the same as someone waiting around for that one 10% spike.\ But I’ve done it with discipline, risk control, and real engagement. That’s not boring. That’s working.
These days, I only trade equities. No crypto. No forex.
Why? Because equities are productive assets tied to real businesses in a real economy.\ They aren’t my end goal — Bitcoin is.\ But equities offer a stable, regulated environment to extract short-term gains without feeding the casino culture of leveraged altcoins or hypervolatile FX pairs.
And forex? You're just trading one melting ice cube for another — flipping between fiat currencies that are backed by nothing but promises and policies.\ It's like playing musical chairs with pieces of paper while the music gets faster.\ I’ve done it. I understand it. But it no longer feels congruent with my Bitcoin ethos.
It’s not about purity. It’s about alignment.\ If I’m going to trade, I want the process to reflect the same principles that drew me to Bitcoin: transparency, discipline, and long-term thinking.
Real trading is:
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Dynamic, not zero-sum.\ While some instruments are win/lose, markets as a whole reward liquidity, attention, and adaptability. Traders contribute to price discovery.
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A funding mechanism for conviction.\ I don’t trade just to make money — I trade to build. My equity gains fund my Bitcoin stacking, my open-source work, my writing, my peace of mind.
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A craft, not a shortcut.\ The edge is earned. Over time. In silence. With scars.
I’m not here to follow someone’s signals.\ And I’m not chasing that one moonshot.
This is daily work.\ This is Proof of Work.
Postscript:\ This week? No red days. A green week — around $300.\ Not a huge number. And that’s okay.\ Because I wasn’t just trading.
I was writing. Building. Launching tools. Finishing a 5-part series.\ Some weeks, the return isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in direction.
Small trades. Strong conviction. Deep alignment.
That’s Proof of Work, too.
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