[alasdair_]

>The "futures trader" extracting value from the system buying/selling futures has done no "real" work, their profit comes exclusively from making others pay more. The financial world is full of middle-men parasites like this.

If I am a farmer and I want to lock in a price for my crops right now, who am I supposed to sell that future to?

Sure, a small percentage of the time, I can sell to someone who knows that they need my crops on exactly that date of delivery, but a lot of the time there simply won't be anyone who knows at that exact moment that they need exactly what I am selling.

Having traders in the system means that I always have a buyer when I want to sell (and similarly when a user of the item wants to buy).

>They love to use the "making the market more efficient" and "price discovery" BS, but I believe they know what they're doing is solely about enriching themselves.

So what? If, through the trader solely enriching themselves, we get something useful from it, why does their motivation matter?

A baker bakes solely to enrich themselves as well - this is the nature of capitalism. The end result is what I care about.