Yes, I think renaissance knows the truth of technical analysis...

Yes, I think renaissance knows the truth of technical analysis but they are definitely not telling.

It has to be a zero sum game between the speculators, a transfer from the more to less successful. As they don't hold for dividends they could as well be trading anything, baseball cards or bitcoin. The traded shares are just another thing to speculate on.

However I think that the more prevalent the speculation and widespread over trading the better it is for contrarians. When people refuse to buy because a stock is "falling" the price gets lower and lower. Then there are a bunch of shortsellers who will get on and hammer it some more, the whole thing is stark raving mad.

There has to be a core of rational people who ultimately don't follow others or speculate on short term prices and will effectively set the floor.

Such people are well rewarded in the market, that's a fact.