Every time we're faced with a stock market crash, I wonder where the money went. Because nothing got actually built or destroyed. The only thing that disappeared, is big part of the savings of a lot of people, and those savings went into the pocket of those "taking their profit".
The stock market as it is now, has little to do with real life economy. It feels like a ponzi scheme to concentrate wealth. Those with background info get rich on the back of the rest.
@JorisMeys the market is based on the marginal exchange value of the stock.
They multiply the total volume of stock with the price it was last traded.
The valuation is completely fictional. determined by the most willing buyer and seller.
If I for an example started a company and sold a billionth of that company for one dollar to my friend, I would be a billionaire.
This is different from a ponzi scheme as the money never existed.
@JorisMeys The stock market will recover, eventually. The value of stocks is unfortunately more real then the value of money, on a long enough time line.
@ekg true, my wording wasn't chosen very well. But they are manipulating the perceived worth to extract real money. Because the stock value might not be real, but the money my mom paid for those stocks definitely was.