[Ambele]

If the stock market appreciates 7% per year on average, then it appreciates by 0.02% per day and you're effectively making $0.20 per $1000 per day with massive volatility. $0.20 is so miniscule, it's not even large enough for a restaurant tip. It's not that uncommon to see large swings in either direction; The market went -4.85% just this week. The stock market is not a zero sum game over the long term (10+ years), but on a day-to-day basis, the market is effectively a zero sum game. If you manage to make more than the market's return, it's because some poor guy or gall out there made less than the market's return.

Fun fact: over 60% of the trade volume on the stock markets comes from bots. If you have enough of a superiority illusion to think your daytrading game these days can outplay the MIT PH.D Quant traders that wrote HFT bots for hedge funds, then you're in for a surprise.

I don't have the exact Peter Lynch quote but he said something to the effect that any period of less than two years in the stock market and you're basically entering a casino. Any period of greater than 2 years and you're investing.

Some other investor said that you should give a company enough time to use and generate a return from the money it received from selling it's stock before you fundamentally expect to see the returns.