Ed Seykota is a well-respected trader who was interviewed in the book Market Wizard. He wrote a foreword in Jack Schwager’s sequel, Hedge Fund Market Wizards, which I find it explained the value of traders and investors alike.
...Once upon a time, a drought comes over the land and the wheat crop fails. Naturally, the price of wheat goes up. Some people cut back and bake less bread while others speculate and buy as much wheat as they can get and hoard it in hopes of higher prices to come.
The king hears about all the speculation and high prices and promptly sends his soldiers from town to town to proclaim that speculating is now a crime against the state-and that severe punishment is to befall speculators.
The new law, like oh so many laws against the free market, only compounds the problem. Soon, some towns have no wheat ...