There is no zero sum game, I laughed at beginning of Forex when Eur/USD was 3 pip spread, $30 bucks where futures was usually 1 tick spread, but Americans being gullible of huge advertisement of "FREE" they came in droves to blow their $1,000 bucks. By the time to buy a PC or laptop you out few hundred then Internet unless you go somewhere that has free Wifi then some sob can hack you laptop and take your identity, trading or investing is going to cost you for the opportunity before you start, but it is still cheapest business to get into, but almost all don't see it as a business, they only see the reward, they don't see the years of study of the markets and thyself, discovering all the really nasty downfalls of self, how to control self is by far the toughest part of self, you will get angry and will want to beat up on the market and do revenge trading, but if you don't have control of self-you lost much more than money. Stock commissions are very cheap less than a penny a share, but still not free, very few brokers give free commissions, when you think about the software to guard from others to hack, you really want to trust someone who is not charging some? It is just like the cheapest of cheap commissions, are they being able to maintain equipment without funds? Data costs huge money too.
Real Estate you make more but far from passive investment, you deal with people who generally lack of education, cause if they had education, more likely they own a house, then always something needs to be repaired, no matter how well to keep your houses up, something gets damaged by people or weather, but it is solid long term investment. Cheaper the homes renting to lower to low mid income is the best, but always maintain them and improve them every couple years, tenants will stay decades.
Death is only free thing on Earth, then you don't have to think about rent or replace water heater on Thanksgiving Day.
