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I have a family member who was a speculator for about a decade and worked in a secondary role for investment banks for the rest of their career. Their advice, a

I have a family member who was a speculator for about a decade and worked in a secondary role for investment banks for the rest of their career. Their advice, as a retail investor, was to just build a diverse portfolio so you are profiting from the market averaging above inflation in the long term. Obviously, later in life you want to transition toward more stable investments like bonds so your retirement money isn’t gone if there’s a crash, but that was the core idea. Is that not sound advice? Based on your comment, any investment at retail is a loss on average.

DavidSJ 3y ago
I think that's consistent with their comment. They said it's still possible to expect profit over the long-term, you just won't have an edge over the market as a whole.
mellosouls 3y ago
The comment was about short term trading (eg "day trading") I think. The reference to long term was in the context of regular short term trading over a long period. Investing in a market spread (eg an index tracker) over the long term with infrequent trading during that time is a different strategy that trusts the market rather than the individual's "skill". This latter is presumably what your relative was (correctly) advising.