Financial markets are a way to sell and buy information, the arrangement of a productive forces in the economy. Profit is the result of selling information - ar

Financial markets are a way to sell and buy information, the arrangement of a productive forces in the economy. Profit is the result of selling information - arranging productive forces - that increased output. Loss results from decrease. The difference between a human and a ~80kg pile of basic elements is their arrangement. So unless the two are equivalent to you, you can't claim the arrangement has no value. So no, nobody is losing. On the contrary, individual profit is only a fraction of the added value to the economy, because the counterparty is doing the exact same thing. Every voluntary trade is done in expectation of profit by both sides. When on average that expectation is more right than wrong, economy grows.