over the past year ive solidified what it means to trade well, at least to me. trading is a whole different ball park than investment, as obvious as that is. must be much more predatorial, despite how bad that sounds, in the sense of constantly reframing questions through an exploitable angle.

oh this new thing just came this specific corner of the market. instead of hearing what the other person is saying, and just conforming to it, listening (reading) and thinking where is it wrong. where and at what point will someone do a mistake, and can i capture that flow somehow.
its a complete different framing than someone who has a more hopeful (naive) view of this business. you find something new and you force yourself to poke holes in it. and those holes might be something that could be exploitable.
if you dont like that framing of the job, idk what to tell ya, just say that you're making markets more efficient i guess, if it helps morally. but tbh its the reality, some of the best trades ive seen are literally doing things when others are making mistakes and being dumb. theres entire businesses built on top of that right.