Wall Street is, essentially, a poker room.
You've got all these poker players sitting at tables. One table has all the pharmaceutical companies playing Texas Hold-em. The next has all the auto companies playing 7-Card Stud. Another has the banks sitting around playing draw poker, jacks wild.
And lined up against the Wall ... are Wall Street brokers. They are making side bets, with investors' money, on each hand of poker. The bigger the pile of chips in front of each player, the bigger the side bet (or stock price)will be for that player.
Some brokers are actually taking side bets that one or more players will lose each hand.
And the House (Wall Street) wins every time, since they get a piece of the action from everyone.
The brokers charge you for the bet, not for the wins. So they can't lose. The only losers are the investors.
It has very little to do with how well each of the players performs, and more on how willing someone is to make a substantial side bet to keep that player in the game.
Over in the corner, at the small stakes tables, are the small businesses. No one is making side bets for them. Occasionally, one of the investors goes over, watches a few hands, and slips a few chips to a player. But largely, they are ignored.
And at the end of the day, the main room has a few big winners and a lot of losers. The small stakes tables are pretty much sharing the pot, although every now and then, one of them gets hot and rakes in a pile. If they do that often enough, they get invited to the main room.
Wall Street is Vegas, baby!
