system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Trading stocks is glorified Pokemon card trading

I've recently started looking into trading, and also buying a bunch of shares here and there. But I can't help the feeling that all of this is just glorified Pokemon card trading. Hear me out.

1. The relationship between the company's performance (which should theoretically be measured by profit) is lost. The valuation is given by how "hot" is a company on the market, which boils down to the investor's feelings rather than some concrete performance metric for the company. This means that stock trading basically becomes "guessing the other investor's feelings". This would be more meaningful if dividends were involved, but very few company pay dividends nowadays. 
2. Although is called an investment, you don't really invest in the company. You just buy a part of the company from an owner. The company does not benefit in any way for it. This is different from buying shares directly from the company, where the money goes directly to the company for development. So, the money invested just get in between the people who own/would like to own a part of a company. Like trading Pokemon cards, where the more people want a card, the more "valuable" it is.
3. Is an (almost) zero sum game. It has been many times discussed whether trading is or not a zero sum game. The main argument was that companies produce something useful for people, and thus inject value into this trading game. Which is true, but except from buying directly from the company, the simple trading is zero sum. And yes, there is the point that a company might want its stock price at a certain point to prepare another release of shares, but still, the point remains that the "new" shares are way too small in volume and way too disconnected to the real value produced by the company.
gpt
Pokémon cards don't pay dividends.

That's the major difference.  You literally get a part of the profit merely by owning a stock (without buying or selling). There is no comparable mechanism in Pokémon cards.

Also, you can VOTE you shares to decided the board of directors. No similar mechanism with Pokémon cards.