“The expectations market,” says Martin, “generates little meaning. It is all about gaining advantage over a trading partner or putting two trading partners together, then tolling them for the service. This structure breeds a kind of amorality in which information is withheld or manipulated and trading partners are treated as vehicles from which to extract money in the short run, at whatever the cost to the relationship.”

The stock market has long been treated as a game by many investors, but, as this article puts it, since 1976 the executives at the companies themselves have become incentivized participants in the game as well.

And this quote from Roger Martin explains the reasons that I loathe the stock market as it stands today. The game of one-upsmanship that traders and their intermediaries play with one another for maximum short-term gain is a zero-sum game, because business information is sacred and there are no incentives to keep the game going (a.k.a. maintaing a steadily profitable business) as long as it's possible to cash out before the other schmucks find out the game's over.