Shai Agmon distinguishes between frictional competitions, in which competitors are permitted and encouraged to interfere with each other’s moves, and parallel competitions, which place competitors on separate, non-interacting tracks. He argues that the market economy is a parallel competition, making it importantly different from frictional competitions like the adversary legal system. Here I challenge this argument: it relies too much on general equilibrium theory for real-world applicability. Yet I also defend Agmon’s reluctance to categorise the market as a frictional competition, for blatant interference with competitors is generally an impermissible business strategy. Agmon neglects a third category, strategic competitions, which do not permit interference but do involve a different kind of interaction, namely an iterated anticipation-and-response to competitors’ moves.