All sellers maximize the sale price.

Original sellers are makers. They create and sell at reasonable price. Speculators only buy to sell at higher price, thus their only reason to exist is to be the one between people who value something more than it's previous price and those selling at previous price. And they want to buy at lower price before other people can buy at that lower price. They don't contribute anything. They just insert themselves and sell not at reasonable price, but at max price than can be paid.

> They create and sell at reasonable price.

I'm afraid there's no evidence whatsoever that makers sell at lower prices than speculators. Everyone sells for as much as possible. There's nothing magic about speculators that enable them to get higher prices.

> And they want to buy at lower price before other people can buy at that lower price.

Every buyer tries to do that.

> They don't contribute anything.

Yes, they do. They provide liquidity, and reduce volatility. For example, the only reason a seller sells to a speculator is if the speculator offers to sell at a higher price than others. The only reason a buyer buys from a speculator is the speculator is offering it at a lower price than others.

There is no magic "speculator market" that operates under different rules and different prices.

> There's nothing magic about speculators that enable them to get higher prices.

> For example, the only reason a seller sells to a speculator is if the speculator offers to sell at a higher price than others.

Yeah, it's not magic.

If there was not speculator in the middle, buyer would look for another seller, who probably could have lower price. And that seller could sell at still higher price, because he doesn't have to pay speculator for finding him a buyer. A little more work for seller and buyer, but because speculator makes this work, doesn't negate "just extracting value from being in the middle".