| I believe you're fundamentally misunderstanding what the stock market is and does. At its base, the stock market is just "you" owning a company. The economy isn't paused for two weeks - many companies will have to continue paying people money, paying their suppliers, paying rent on their offices, etc. Let's say you own a company that usually has say 100k in earnings and 90k in spending, making you 10k profit every month. That company now has, because of the virus, say 50k in earnings instead, and 80k in spending (it reduces some salaries where it can, but still has to keep the offices around etc.) That company is now going to be losing money for a few months. Now you own a chunk of this company. Yesterday you assumed it was worth 10 million dollars. Today, do you agree that it's worth less? After all, it's going to be losing money for a few months at least. Notice that it's only worth less on paper - if you don't sell your ownership stake, then you haven't really seen a loss. But a lot of people are selling their ownership stake. And that makes sense! If you're 60 years old and need cash right now, and you own a company that, instead of earning 10k a month, will now be losing 40k a month, you might want to sell your share to not lose money, because you need cash. Maybe some other investor that can stomach losing a few months' of profit can take it off your hands. |