1. Why does the market keep going up? Why does it tend to increase over time?

2. Is investing zero-sum? If 3 people buy shares of BIDU and it goes up, all 3 gain money? Where does this money come from if investing is zero-sum? Who has lost?

3. I can understand why trading is zero sum, but how do I rectify this with the idea that investing may not be zero-sum? If 3 investors all gain from investing in a stock... can't all traders possibly gain money as well?

I've tried looking on the forums for the answer to this, but to no avail.

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bad questions?

Without getting technical - one way to think about it is this: If a companies stock is $30 now when it makes $1.10 per share now...due to inflation eventually that will be $1.70 per share even if the company does not change margins simply because they pay more for resources and pass that on to the customers by increased prices. Therefore all else being equal, the stock price must go up to reflect the new Earnings Per Share.

See #1. Its an extremely basic look at one reason why overtime stocks have to go up if inflation was the only variable. Who lost money when you sell the shares at a profit? The person that sold them to you.

Over time, like Poker, the best traders do. The best traders lose money too, but they make more then they lose. Not every trade has to be a winning trade to be a winning trader. Just like every session in Poker doesn't have to be winning to be a winning poker player.