It has nothing to do with intelligence, just luck.
Speaking as someone who was very into financial instruments and crypto (yeah I know) back when I was a lib, it is almost entirely luck. You can know what theta decay is, what Delta and all the other metrics mean, do research on how the stock typically performs during the yearly period you're holding the options, look at preliminary results....and still be completely wrong because some firm decides to buy a ton of stock, rendering the work moot.
Nobody knows if the market is going to go up, down, or in fucking circles, and crypto is even MORE volatile; the only reason people 'win' at it are because they happened to possess that insane luck or because they had enough cash they could keep guessing until they got it right
Or they're Wall Street types who have insiders give them knowledge. While they certainly do know how stocks perform, the main reason why they get rich is mass insider trading and rigging the markets.
Speaking as someone who was very into financial instruments and crypto (yeah I know) back when I was a lib, it is almost entirely luck. You can know what theta decay is, what Delta and all the other metrics mean, do research on how the stock typically performs during the yearly period you're holding the options, look at preliminary results....and still be completely wrong because some firm decides to buy a ton of stock, rendering the work moot.
Nobody knows if the market is going to go up, down, or in fucking circles, and crypto is even MORE volatile; the only reason people 'win' at it are because they happened to possess that insane luck or because they had enough cash they could keep guessing until they got it right
Or they're Wall Street types who have insiders give them knowledge. While they certainly do know how stocks perform, the main reason why they get rich is mass insider trading and rigging the markets.
All the politicians routinely beating the market really shows you how this thing is a mugs game.