Trading in the financial markets is a zero sums game. It is the same for options trading, forex trading and every form of trading. Trading is not real investment. There is no real value added to society as a whole. One form of investing creates social value, the other steals it. Many people are making money through such means without being conscious of what they are doing. They think that they are becoming rich but the truth is they are not creating true wealth at all. They are actually decreasing world wealth.

All financial trading is equivalent with gambling which is a zero sums game. Winning the lottery is also a zero sums game. Your winnings are gained by the losses of all those people who put their money into the game. Playing the game of the fools and winning at it does not make you wise. It only makes you king of the fools. Those with higher level of consciousness do not even seek to involve themselves in such games. They would rather spend their time and energy creating real wealth for everyone else.
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Unlike the lottery, winning a lucky draw is fine because it is not a zero sums game. Companies share a portion of the profits to entice more sales from people by giving them a chance to win prizes or money. As a customer, you have given your money in exchange for goods or services that benefit you. Therefore there has already been a true exchange of value for value derived. You are given a right to win prizes or money and this money is good because it comes from payment for real value that’s received.

You can use thought power to win a lucky draw. But your thought power could be better used elsewhere such as your business. When you create wealth through your business, you are truly wealthy indeed. It is a means by which you add the greatest value to society while deriving the greatest financial rewards in return. You can never compare wealth made through your business or honest labor than through any other means. Every dollar you make through real work is richer than all other ways attained.

It is the intent of the person that determines whether something is an investment or not. Two people might put in money to buy the same company share. One does it as a means to sell it away when the price increases. He is simply trading and not thinking of contributing value at all. The other person does it with the belief that the company would grow and he is simply supporting it financially. He gets back his reward in terms of dividends paid. One has the intent to invest while the other does not truly have it.

It might seem like there is great wealth being made because huge sums of money are moved daily in the world, but it is all really a great deception. Everyday in the inter-bank currency markets alone, over $1.3 trillion dollars change hands. Only 2% of those transactions are for goods and services. For individuals who buy stocks, or bonds at one price and selling them at a higher price, all they’re doing is taking advantage of market inefficiencies to extract money for themselves without contributing any value.

The two different strategies of making money can be labeled in another way as contribution or mooching. You are either creating genuine value as well as being paid for it, or you are mooching off the value created by others. Note that the first strategy is essential for the monetary system to survive and thrive, but the second is not. The only way moochers can survive is by extracting value from the contributors. But ultimately someone must contribute, or there can be no value at all for the moochers to extract.

The world desperately needs physical economic development, in the form of clean energy, freshwater development, high-speed mass transit, health care, and industry. The lunatics of “mathematical finance” aren’t going to provide any of this. Only the power of sovereign governments, working together can. The hedge funds, derivative markets, and all of their related betting systems should be shut down. Once that is done, money can be properly used to make the world a better place for human beings.

The more you have the moocher mindset, the harder it will be to make money and remain conscious. Ultimately you have to choose one or the other. Be conscious or be rich. You can’t have both when you have the moocher mindset. It is not the spiritual way of wealth. If you find yourself stuck at a certain level of income and not able to go any higher, your moocher mindset might be the problem. It is the mindset that makes you feel bad about earning more money because your gain is somebody else’s pain.

The moocher mindset causes self sabotage of wealth. It causes you to have a love/hate relationship with money. On one hand, you may want more money, but on the other hand, you do not feel like making too much since you know that the money you get, the more someone else has to pay for it. A professional poker player knows that the more he earns the more money others have to lose. This is not the best way for a highly conscious person to be motivated in achievement of financial abundance.

Some people are able to bypass this problem of financial self sabotage by lowering their consciousness. They learn to make money without rationally considering the consequences of how they’re earning it. They invent justifications to explain their actions while keeping their awareness from getting in the way. Ultimately this is the mindset of criminals. It does not ultimately profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul. Rising in awareness and making money consciously are of the same path.[/hidepost]