You're betraying a very old-fashioned way of thinking! There was a time when some people bought stock for dividends, but now only fuddy-duddies and retirees do. It's all about what the price is going to be tomorrow, or next month, or next year, when you hope to sell it for a capital gain. Since stock prices are at least partly determined by underlying profits, the best guess you can have for the price at which you'll unload the shares is some multiple of future profits. It's one step this side of alchemy, but that's the rationale.
Speaking of stock trading, it seems that on the first day of trading in that Chinese Google, Baidu, the average share turned over ten times.
Doug
^^^^^ CB: Are there any studies of what percentage of people playing the stock market are able to sell their stock at a profit ? What is the ratio of winners to losers in the stock market ?
Why is there such confidence that there will always be somebody who the stock can be "unloaded" on in the future ? Is it that a sucker with money (or 1000) is born everyday ?