I see your point. You are correct in that there is no net new creation of equity capital in a secondary market trade. I look at it this way: there is a fixed

I see your point. You are correct in that there is no net new creation of equity capital in a secondary market trade. I look at it this way: there is a fixed amount of equity capital floating in the world at any given moment. At any point in time, someone has foregone consumption (decided to forego eating a pizza today), at some point in the past (distant or recent) in order to own a piece of that equity. Also keep in mind companies issue and retire equity on a more or less ongoing basis through employee stock grants and buybacks. So it really is a question of how much you want cash vs. shares of stock, and how that tradeoff works for others.