aba, I have rarely heard it put so simply and elegantly. For the intellectuals out there who hate traders, trading and everything that goes with it, what great and lofty ideal did the Mapplethorpe Exhibit (The Perfect Moment) reach???? One persons parasite is another's Great Artiste, oh and by the way speculators in oil, hahahaha, people talk about this and have no idea of the role of speculators. Yes, take out the speculators in oil, com'on do it if you are Butch enough, then we can watch the oil prices go from $100.00 one day, $1000.00 another and $25.00 another, what do you think would happen to the world economies then, boneheads. The Never Trusting The Overlords VIPER
Few here have the balls to admit that what they do or aspire to do is a grotesque waste of energy. I'm not saying you shouldn't play, but at least admit you are engaged in a pastime with little redeeming value. Unless you place great weight in supporting the infrastructure like Schwab, NYSE, tout sheets, software vendors, and the like, there's little accomplished at the end of the day by flipping paper back and forth at various prices. Go ahead, justify it with any of the usual homilies. Wouldn't want to cause anyone to feel uneasy.
Of course it's all relative. If you think the whole financial system is important to society, and traders provide liquidity to allow the markets to run smoothly, then some trading is definitely useful. However, since most of the volume is from funds and banks, retail trading is probably an activity that society could easily do without, and therefore retail traders could be considered an unproductive segment of society. For those who say retail trading is useful because traders pay taxes, support families, support charities, etc., etc. ... not a good argument. That's not what the question was (at least my interpretation), the question was about the activity itself .... trading. Doctors, teachers, plumbers, do all the above ON TOP OF providing a necessary service (to varying degrees and levels of value) to earn the money that they pump back into the system.
It's useless, just like most of the jobs people do. In modern western economies, majority of industries are government subsidized either directly or indirectly. Take farmers for example, without subsidies their business model would collapse as it's much cheaper to buy the harvests from a cheaper foreign location but politics are all about pleasing the masses, so they do whatever they can. Advertisement is another field, most of the goods you do not really need and if you do, you know where to buy them. Still you see a lot of sneaker and other sportswear advertised a lot. These marketing people are useless in that sense. No country wants to have huge numbers of unemployed people roaming the streets, it's a recipe for disaster - that's why so many useless jobs exist.
Do we need gas stations on every corner? Why should we use up scarce natural resources and valuble land just so a gas station can be location across the street from another station. Isn't a street corner with 4 gas stations unproductive for all but one station.
The very fact that these "useless" jobs exist means that they are indeed useful, for whatever reason - stability of government for example. You will not even know trading exists if there were no such jobs. The fact that they exist means they serve a purpose. Evolution. All jobs are real and play a part in society. Unless, we go backwards and live in caves.
Traders are competing with each other to get filled. Competition for fills decreases the bid ask spread and also adds depth to the market. If there were no traders or much fewer traders then spreads would widen other market users would get a worse price. Deep and efficient capital markets are good for business and the economy.