if every stock transaction has a buyer & seller, does that mean 50% of the people will always be losing money?

Question

I just got into the stocks market. AFAIK every transaction must have someone selling and someone buying, both thinking that they will be making money. How can both be making money?

Does that mean at least half of everyone in the stocks market will have to be losers?

In: 97

Answer 1

I think it’s like a zero sum game except the government kept printing more money and the company kept diluting stock shares by adding more stock shares.
It’s similar to Multi-level Marketing. The next person who bought the stock shares hopes future buyers will buy the share at a higher cost. But unlike Multi-level Marketing, there are some restrictions (such as limit down) to make stock crashes more difficult to happen.