Ahh, the stock market. My favorite over-hyped false indicator. The place where imaginary money gets imaginarily lost one day just to be made again the next day (or week). Apparently, the Dow fell below 10,000 earlier today. 10,000 what? We don't really know exactly what this number actually represents.
Why is it important it's below or above 10,000? No real reason, it's just an 'indicator of the mindset' of traders and being below this imaginary line makes traders uncomfortable or lose confidence in the market. Does the stock market actually affect the daily lives of you or me? Not really. It's not putting any real money into my pocket right now. It would if I sold the few shares I own, but then I wouldn't be in the stock market any more. So, let me get this straight- the only way to make money from the stock market is to sell the things you own that made you in it in the first place? Makes perfect sense to me.
On a daily basis we hear numbers about the stock market thrown around, but the impact they actually have on the average person is small to none. The only time we actually see this effect is when, during a crisis like the past 24 months, we hear about some poor, little old lady who's whole life savings was wiped out. And where did it go? We don't know. It just vanished.
To me the stock market is where greedy people who want to make money without actually having to do anything can go. And the sad thing is that most of the people in college nowadays see this daily lottery (which, I think, is the best way to look at it) as a viable career option. I call it a path to potential riches where little is actually produced and much is wasted.
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