Trading as a gambling status game

Stock‑market turnover is driven not primarily by information arbitrage but by people (especially men and competitive fund managers) treating markets as a game: entertainment plus overconfidence produces persistent, high trading volume even absent a reliable edge. This reframes volume as social signaling and play rather than an information‑aggregation byproduct. — If trading is mostly a status/gambling activity, policy and regulation should focus more on behavioral safeguards, disclosure of turnover costs, and the political economy of institutions that reward performative activity.