80% are losing who the hell is winning and how? I fell like they are cheating or have some sort of advantage that is not easily available to private day traders and no I don't think that advantage is a PHD and fast data connection.
You mention a potential strategy for manipulating the market like pushing prices to hit stops, well if these strategies are common then it seems there exists a potential strategy to take advantage of this.
It seems like so long as the market's next tick price is not completely uncorrelated from its previous tick price, then there will always be a way to 'beat' the market. The market price is not completely uncorrelated (as you mentioned, there's price manipulation driving it to certain prices throughout the day).