> That's not-nothing but can't hold a candle to the potential fortunes of the market.
a market is where things are sold and bought. there are lots of markets which aren't as well capitalized as financial markets - your local farmer's market doesn't "hold a candle to the potential fortunes of the market" but it's still a market (and presumably the efficient market hypothesis still applies).
The markets arent efficient without enough participants. This is why the price of gasoline only fluctuates cents between competitors, but vehicle prices fluctuate thousands. It's a very simple concept that you aren't seeing.
The market for solving math problems is tiny compared to selling/ running algos for trading. You solve a pure math problem you might get accolades from some professors.
> That's not-nothing but can't hold a candle to the potential fortunes of the market.
a market is where things are sold and bought. there are lots of markets which aren't as well capitalized as financial markets - your local farmer's market doesn't "hold a candle to the potential fortunes of the market" but it's still a market (and presumably the efficient market hypothesis still applies).