If you are a trader, a good skill to have is buying stuff that will go up. If the stuff — stocks, bonds, currencies, whatever — that you buy reliably goes up, then you can make a lot of money. You can make money simply by buying the stuff, having it go up, and then selling it for more money than you paid. But there are other ways to monetize the skill. You can start an investment newsletter, and charge people a fee for telling them what stuff will go up. You can start a hedge fund, buying stuff for other people and taking a cut of their profits.
Meanwhile, other people might try to free-ride on your skill. People might find out what you are buying — your broker will see your orders, or maybe you’re running a hedge fund and have to disclose what you buy — and might try to copy you, since what you buy keeps going up. Your purchases contain information — they encode the message “this stuff will probably go up” — and that information is valuable.
