A stock is a part of a company. You still have have that part.
Comment on $1.8 trillion was wiped out from the US stock market yesterday, where did it go?
3abas@lemmy.world 15 hours agoThe point you’re missing is that the loss is real for the investors holding those assets.
If you bought ten cards for $5 each, you invested $50. When their market value rises to $80, you have an investment worth $80. If that value subsequently falls to $10, you’ve lost $70 in investment value. You can no longer sell those cards for what you could have sold them for yesterday.
And if you were someone who bought those ten cards at $8 each, you’ve now lost $70 of your original $80 investment. That isn’t hypothetical money. That’s money you actually spent and can no longer recover by selling your cards.
The money is not “still there”, the money transferred hands and you (or your retirement account) are holding the empty bag.
bstix@feddit.dk 14 hours ago
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
A stock is a piece of paper representing part of a company.
You still have the paper.
bstix@feddit.dk 4 hours ago
There’s nothing “supposedly” about it. It does represent a part of the ownership. If you own all the pieces of paper then you own the company.
However much you paid for it and how much it’s worth are completely different stories, but the stock is indeed the ownership.
wetsoggybread@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
The thing is though you haven’t actually lost money or gained money until you sell the shares and until you do sell, you still have those shares so you could always get your money back if the stock goes back up. The only time you will lose money when holding stock is if the company goes out of buisiness
3abas@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
If you believe the capitalist assertion that stock always go up, sure. If you’re not close to retirement and aren’t counting on those funds anytime soon, sure.
I believe the AI circular financing bubble isn’t meaningfully going to turn a corner and become profitable enough to pay the debts already accumulated, and once it truly pops that money will never come back to the average investor trusting the financial bros to put all their eggs into that overinflated basket.