i can cure chartists, page-93

You must be one of the 'slowest' beginners I ever had to teach.

In 1991 CBA was worth $6 billion.
It is now worth $66 billion.

Disregarding dividends (I am making things simple for you for the obvious reasons) the *total* profit for *all* investors / traders in CBA over the 16 year period is $60 billion.

In fact this $60 billion is the *maximum* profit available and can only be achieved if every person who bought at the IPO still held their shares.

Any trading of shares in the itervening 16 years has the effect of reducing the *maximum* profit of $60 billion through commissions and CGT.

Therefore the market is not *zero-sum*.
It is *negative-sum*.

Simple concept.