Do traders and investors add value to the society, or at least the financial ecosystem? In order to make money, one must provide value. If there are traders and investors out there that make money, there must be value that they contributed. I could think of 5 contributions. Bring prices closer to ‘true value’ Instead of believing the market is always efficient, investors and traders buy and sell to price the market as efficient as possible. Most of the time, traders are able to move price closer to the true value. But when the orders become overwhelming, that is where the market goes out of whack. No hedge fund or bank would be able to fight against the crowd in unison. A value investor will look for an asset that is priced lower than the ‘true value’. So by buying the assets, the demand he created signals the market that ......