Peter Brandt argues that market speculation is not primarily about prices, charts, trading hours, margins or government reports, but about understanding how markets redistribute wealth from many participants to a smaller group. In an X post dated September 13, 2026, Brandt said retail traders using roughly five to 20 futures contracts per trade have little influence compared with institutional traders and larger commercial participants. He said fewer than 3 in 1,000 speculators succeed because many misunderstand the market’s basic structure and instead blame losses on forecasts, government reports or trading strategies. Brandt described stock and commodity trading as a large computer game and said the same perspective may matter to crypto traders focused on short-term price action and market narratives. The comments came as traders prepared for the Federal Reserve’s expected interest-rate decision on Wednesday, including Chair Kevin Warsh’s press conference and the updated Summary of Economic Projections, or Dot Plot. The Bank of England and Bank of Japan are due to announce their decisions on Thursday and Friday, respectively. Bitcoin and some other crypto assets were higher early Monday but Bitcoin remained below the September 3, 2026, high of $82,283 after consolidating from a short squeeze that lifted it from $64,000 in August. The SEC (U.S. securities regulator) provided interpretive guidance in March 2026 classifying major cryptocurrencies as digital commodities.