Most retail traders lose money because they confuse the voting booth with the weighing scale. They buy the popularity contest at the peak of the party, then sell the weight when the hangover arrives. Secret #2: Liquidity is the Silent Puppeteer Forget interest rates for a moment. The real fuel of the market isn't optimism; it's liquidity—the amount of cash sloshing around the system.
But those are the declared reasons. They are the alibis. They are the post-game analysis written to fit the scoreboard. The undeclared secrets that drive the stock market
Most institutional trading happens in —private exchanges where big funds hide their intentions. When a pension fund wants to sell a million shares, they don't dump them on the public exchange (which would crash the price). They trickle them out in the dark. Most retail traders lose money because they confuse