Hello, peaceful refugee /his/poster here. Is the stock market

>>1904653
The price of a share seems arbitrary because the number of total shares varies from company to company. The total price of all shares is what matters, and that's based on a combination of hype, speculation, and fundamentals.

>>1904661
Yeah but I mean what difference does it make for the company in question, for the people that work there? Is it just a near-metaphysical game for stock traders, unrelated to the store-level net income?

NVM I just realized that the money you buy the stocks with actually gets invested into the companys' budget 90% of the time.

This is what ideology does to a person, it makes them ignore shit like this.

>>1904686
The company's performance affects the stock, not the other way around.

>>1904722
This is only true for IPOs, and unless you're a big fish, you won't be buying the IPO. The stock market is a secondary market.

>>1904728
How does the secondary market influence the company, then? Does it at all? I assume, if I read investopedia correctly, that the transaction is between two people, with them making all the profits and the company not gaining anything with it?

>>1904769
The stock price is influenced by the performance of the company, not the other way around.
Companies sell stock to raise money, and investors buy it because they think the company will do well and the stock will be worth more in the future.

>the transaction is between two people, with them making all the profits and the company not gaining anything with it?
That's pretty much the definition of a secondary market, yes.

Considering shares are peices of ownership in a company, yes it can have an impact. it means you have a share in shareholder decisions made by the company. if a company is large enough, naturally those decisions will have more value.

>Is the stock market actually relevant to anything except the stock market?

To the company itself, since the ownership of stock means ownership of the company. If your share price plummets, someone else (e.g. a competitor during what's called a "hostile take-over") can swoop in and buy a majority and now literally calls the shots.
Naturally the owners are interested in higher evaluation, since it impacts their net-worth and their ability to cash-out.
Employees might have stock options, so how well the company does on the stock market determines part of their salary.

The bigger picture is that all financial markets are connected globally. Stock markets are seen as indicators for the economy. A dip and a recession are pretty closely connected. But if people flee the stock market - where does the money go? And now we're talking about savings, interest rates, bonds, inflation, real estate prices, etc. So yes, the stock market does have a large impact on everything associated with money.

>Like, the price of a share doesn't influence the actual profits of the company, right? The price of a share is the consequence of the profitability, not the other way around, after all.

Yes. This is the underlying value. The stock market price can be higher or lower, leading to the company being over- or under-valued. But the hype is valuable when you have to issue new shares to take on new equity. If you can issue the new shares at a higher price, you have more equity to work with.