Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Stock Market

The stock market confuses and horrifies me. Not that it is terribly complicated, or I don't understand how to use it, but it really seems to have no good purpose. Or, actually, it has one purpose which no one seems to talk about ...

I mean, if I buy, say, a share of Apple stock, who profits from this? Apple stock doesn't pay dividends; I make no money from that share of stock unless I sell it again for a price higher than I bought it. And Apple makes no money from the purchase of this stock other than during the initial offering.

So, as far as I can tell (and counting only stock that doesn't pay dividends, which is the majority), what we're basically trying to do here is transfer money from the dumber stock investors to the smarter ones ...

Oh wait ... forget I said anything!