After surviving both AP economics classes in high school, I consider myself practically overqualified to discuss the intricacies of the stock market. With my vast knowledge — emphasis on vast — I’m here to make a bold claim: the stock market is, for lack of a better word, fake.
If you’ve ever found yourself staring at stock charts, feeling like you’re trying to read ancient hieroglyphics, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re probably onto something. It turns out that nearly 99% of day traders can’t consistently beat the market, despite all the “expert” advice, the CNBC soundbites and the hordes of Instagram gurus who will give you their course for just $9.99 a month. It sounds suspiciously like a rigged game, doesn’t it?
Remember Matthew McConaughey’s scene in The Wolf of Wall Street, where he explains that the stock market is just one big guessing game designed to make brokers rich? He talks about fairy dust floating in the air and how the only people really getting rich are those who started out that way. Well, let’s just say there’s a kernel of truth there.
Let’s face it: The stock market is just the world’s most sophisticated casino. Only instead of slot machines and poker tables, it’s graphs, ratios and a whole lot of jargon designed to confuse anyone who isn’t already an insider. And it seems just like in Vegas, the house — aka the brokers, hedge funds and “high-frequency trading firms” — always wins. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
But if the stock market is all smoke and mirrors, why do people keep pouring their money into it? Why do we pretend that a price-earnings ratio means anything other than “someone, somewhere, thinks this company is worth something today?”
It’s because deep down, we all want to believe that we can beat the system. We’ve heard about that genius 10% of investors who somehow manage to outperform the market every year. We think, “Hey, maybe I could be one of those people.” But here’s the thing: For all the fancy charts and technical terms, the stock market’s primary purpose isn’t to make you rich — it’s to keep Wall Street fat and happy. And while countless “experts” flood the internet claiming to have cracked the code, the reality is much different. A staggering 80-90% of day traders lose money over time, according to a study by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile, another study from Dalbar Inc. found that the average investor underperforms the S&P 500 by about 4-5%. In short, most of these so-called experts are no better at predicting the market than a coin flip, yet they’re more than happy to sell you their “secret formula.”
The truth is, the smart money isn’t in chasing these daily ups and downs or in betting on the next big stock pick. The real winners are the ones who understand that the stock market isn’t a quick fix or a get-rich-quick scheme. Instead, they invest steadily, often in broad-based index funds, letting the power of compounding and market growth work over time. Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time, has famously advised sticking to index funds, and for a good reason: between 1984 and 2020, the S&P 500 index has returned an average of about 10% per year — beating the vast majority of actively managed funds.
So while it may not be flashy or thrilling, investing passively in the main index funds or simply steering clear of the day-to-day frenzy shows a deeper kind of wisdom. Those who recognize their limits and opt for simplicity may not get rich overnight, but they’re far less likely to fall victim to the whims of an unpredictable market. When you avoid the noise, the “experts” and the allure of day trading, you’re choosing a path of patience and steadiness that — statistically speaking — is the smartest move you can make.
Because in the end, if most traders can’t consistently beat the market, what chance does the average civilian have? The next time someone claims they’ve found the secret to quick profits, remember: The real secret might just be knowing when to say no. In a world where Wall Street sells illusions of expertise, there’s power in being the one who simply chooses not to play.