We live in a very competitive society where limited high paying jobs are often protected by nepotism, institutional/guild exclusion and sometimes outright corruption. Of course being in a democracy allows, theoretically, that anyone can work their way up the economic ladder through hard work, experience and educational attainment, leading towards meritocratic based achievement. Investing is another democratic path to building wealth, where anybody from any background can participate as long as you have an accredited online bank account and a trading app, like Robinhood. The investing game has to be understood to be played correctly, but all are welcome.
In chess it’s a one-on-one matchup with the binary outcome of a winner and loser. In fantasy sports leagues there are multiple participants who draft individual players for each team; there is limited supply as each top professional player can only be on one team. It’s a more dynamic competitive situation, as it’s based on cumulative stats and ends when the season is over. But it also ranks winners/losers.
If we extend game theory to investing, there is of course competition among the businesses represented by each of those stock symbols. But as far as the retail investor goes, you can buy a little “Michael Jordan” with Apple (APPL) or a promising rookie in the NHL like “Kirill Kaprizov” with a company like Magnite (MGNI). In essence you can buy shares of any company you want that trades on the NASDAQ or NYSE, and with the ability to buy fractional shares from a brokerage like Robinhood, big share price isn’t a barrier.
It really comes down to creating your own investing thesis/approach and then you essentially compete with yourself by continuing to fine tune your portfolio toward better returns while also supporting the types of companies you feel good about. When you buy shares of a company (or its goods and services), you are essentially voting with your dollars for the kind of society you want to live in. This is why the threat of boycotts/divestment are such powerful levers (i.e. Georgia)… as well as the opposite through investing/purchasing power.
“Economics is about creating win-win situations. But in sports, someone loses.” –Stan Kroenke