Quote from gbos:
First of all the stock market as a whole grows no more than 4 â 5% a year on average
Check your premises.
According to MER, from 1926-2000, the U.S. stock market provided investors with an <b>average 13.4% annualized return.</b>
http://www.mlim.ml.com/content/Private/pdfs/pi_pres_mkt_volatility.pdf#search='s%26p%20average%20annual%20return%2019002000'
Futures, derivatives and forex are all zero sum games (before commissions and other costs of trading) .
Historically however, holding equities long is truly a positive sum game.