a power to change reality in the way they like? Or maybe "free will" is limited? IMO, we can't change the reality, the future. Everything is interconnected.
On what level? Governmental. For example I happen to think that the US government is surprisingly controlling of its population for supposedly the number 1 democracy in the world. Perhaps it goes back to their prohibition days. We in the UK are not far behind them though! Fate. In my non-trading (i.e. rational!!!) moments I happen to think there is no predestination. We are just subject to "Events, dear boy, events" (Harold MacMillan quote). In other words we are all subject to random events that either work for or against us.
i have been researching quantum mechanics to find potential corelations with the financial markets, and so far in my study, i would have to say there is no such thing as free will. allow me to explain: we "decide" to go long a stock, we could have "decided" to short the stock--this is the "what if" concept. this concept assumes that we posses free will as to how to place the trade. the "what if" on the long entry is a short entry. the short entry is "contrafactual" bell's quantum theorem shows that the principle of local cause is incorrect ( local cause-- us making the choice of going long or short) then contrafactual definiteness fails leaving us only with the possibility of "superdeterminism". this means that not even the initial situation of the universe could be changed. no matter what we are doing at any given moment, it is the only thing that ever was possible for us to be doing at that moment. quantum mechanics gets even stranger with the "many worlds" theory that states that whenever a decision is made between one possible event and another the universe splits into different branches. this is far out stuff for sure. we are that which is therefore there is no free will. best, surf
So by that analysis of quantum mechanics and free-will, I could decide to just stay flat and disprove your hypothesis.
Free will is an interesting topic. Free will supposedly means that "I" have the ability to do whatever I want when I want. However, isn't that really determined by my past and also my abilities, biases, preferences? Many times I have wanted to throw a brick through a window, but was unable to do so because of social repurcussions. Does this mean I'm not really free? Also, would the illusion of free will suffice for the absence of true free will? I would believe so, and that's why I believe humans have a psuedo form of free-will that, in most circumstances, appears to be true free will but when viewed from a greater perspective, can be proven to be a limited version of true freedom. If quantum mechanics "many worlds" theory is true, then there is a world that exists right now where every trade I have made is profitable. The only problem then is figuring out how to get to that place!
you want to disprove the hypothesis you had no choice but to pick 'flat'. if you have no choice how do you call that free will?
Ok, then I'll step back one more and say that I once made a decision not even to become a trader. Now what? I'm not even in the game anymore under that one!