I am not a trader. Despite the contrary statistics I read about regarding the % of daytraders who are consistently profitable, my own anectdotal experience is that I do not know one trader who has not puked as much and typically more than he has gorged, and on top of that, he has to deal with incredible tax inefficiencies.
I am not saying the consistent, profitable, tax-efficient trader doesn't exist - I'm just saying I haven't found any. And I'm not talking about a 2 or 4 year horizon. I'm talking a 5 or 10 or 15 year one. Every single person I know who was once an apostle of trading has sworn off it.
That's just my anecdotal experience.
So, it's not a zero sum game. If you find yourself profitable, and I chose not to trade the same markets you did, and could have matched your performance, it's not as if I lose, especially if I have greater confidence investing in tangible, income producing assets, which is definitely the case.
You and I have different inflection points - I'm totally focused on the real economy, as that provides me the customers who pay me revenue, which only happens when their business models are working, and you are often trading headlines and charts on things sometimes short term blissfully ignorant of economic fundamentals.