People make a lot of money on wall street from doing one of 2 things either playing the lotto, or taking a modest slice of vary big cash flows. I would argue that much of the current financial system is designed to extract money from people and institutions with capital though fees and Martingale style investments. Consider, few people would trade an extra 1% return for a 1% risk of complete loss of all equity unless they only share in the upside. Yet, plenty of institutions try and 'pickup penny's in-front of steamrollers' because the people making the decisions share the same risk profile as the company.
Also, the risk profile idea is: A company's decision makers tend to act in their own self interest. So, when their risk profile is favors high risks followed by a quick exit the company will end taking lot's of long term risks even if it's not healthy for it to do so. EX: There is a continuum of lean manufacturing where each stage is slightly more efficient, but the risk that supply chain issues cascading increases. If everyone is focused on the next quarters profit independent of all other issues then things may be trimmed past the point of reasons. This carries over into every area, if you can get a 6 months supply of a part at significantly below market rates it may be worth it to do so but again risk reward of decision maker informs what the company will end up doing. What separates the financial industry is simply the scale of risks and rewards offered to low level individuals within a company.
