Point #2 is what I'm talking about. Any algorithm that is going to make money long term on a large scale has to be inherently unpredictable, which is difficult

Point #2 is what I'm talking about. Any algorithm that is going to make money long term on a large scale has to be inherently unpredictable, which is difficult if it is an algorithm that predicts the future state of the market from past data. Sure, the world is less than perfect in a lot of ways. In most cases we try and fix it. Why is capitalism the one way where we say "oh well, that's just how things are" ?? Research has demonstrated that barring insider information, random stock picking often outperforms "experts". I believe the market is fairly efficient, and people who make money are either lucky or are leveraging short term information differentials, which in today's hyper-connected society are going to become increasingly rare (barring insider information, again).