One can make money in the stock market without any trading at all; Merton Miller often emphasized that prices could adjust to new information without any trades

One can make money in the stock market without any trading at all; Merton Miller often emphasized that prices could adjust to new information without any trades taking place, if asset holders and potential buyers agreed on the impact of the new information on the asset value. Trades only take place when asset buyers and sellers have differing valuations for the same asset, whether it be for reasons of uncertainty, asymmetric information, or subjective values. You are also assuming that stock trading is like gambling, where the amount of money at the table is not variable over time (except for players coming and going); this is the zero-sum fallacy.