A long, long time ago, say two years or so, my speculator friends would complain about the "over-arbed" world they lived in.

They would develop a relative value trade, in which they would go long one security or commodity and then sell another short, perhaps buying Brazilian bonds and shorting the equivalent value of Argentine bonds, or copper and aluminium. But, given the weight of cash in the world, their prospective harvest if the relative values moved in the desired direction would be small. Also, what with the numbers of competing speculators, the good ideas would be quickly jumped on if they hesitated so as to do more research. Life was tough.