As I understand it, retail investors only account for roughly 10% of the buying and selling of stocks. So that means the rest is done between large institutions correct? Stocks only go up and down if someone is buying/selling. Theoretically the price of stocks would stay the same if no one bought or sold for a day?
So correct me if I'm wrong, the constant movement of the stock market is pretty much institutions speculating between on another about how they feel the price of a stock is at any given moment and trying to get micro gains throughout the day by buying and selling between one another? And the stocks they do this with mostly comes from 401ks and rich peoples money?
For example today after the Tariff announcements, stocks went down because a number of institutions felt is was to their advantage to liquidate and move their money elsewhere.... and another buyer/institution felt is was worth the risk to buy these at a lower price, with neither of them knowing what the best play was, but both taking a gamble on their feelings/guesses/data? And as a result the market went down overall, even though another institution bought the stocks because they felt it was a good play to still make money eventually buy buying them at a lower price.
If you've made it this far, how is this not adult Trading Cards? These stocks hold no actual value except what the next institution, rich person, retail investor is willing to pay for them. Most don't offer a reasonable return by holding them. And the companys stock you bought don't get any money directly from you buying them \*yes I understand they kinda do in indirect way\*, and yes if you have the majority of stocks you can dictate what the company does in a lot of ways, but that would probably turn into a disaster since almost no here on reddit knows how to run a company.....