neither you nor parent post are absolutely right, of course. In the USA in the 2000 era, a lot of people with the ability to place large betting stakes on the table, using access to market-makers and leveraged buys of all kinds, were able to push around a LOT of money, mostly profitable, for quite a while. The party ended, except it didn't. The same over-leveraged tactics by players with access, except this time against one of the most protected asset classes, homes, almost collapsed the entire system with their excess. There are tomes written about this now, fifteen years later. Its not clean, fair or balanced.