Right, you've got it. There is no reason why your apple stock should have a greater value if apple does better as a company, other than the fact that as a colle

Right, you've got it. There is no reason why your apple stock should have a greater value if apple does better as a company, other than the fact that as a collective we've all chosen to believe that your share "represents" a "slice" of the company, and we've also all chosen to believe that other people will value your "slice" more when the company does "better". There is no material meaning behind saying that your apple stock is a "slice of the company." In no material way is that true in a practical sense. You are not entitled to a percentage of profits, and you do not have any say in the way the company operates. As for my other point, we've all chosen to believe that other people will buy our stock for more when the company "does better". But "doing better" doesn't necessarily mean "is more profitable." Just look at WeWork for a counterexample. We're all just trading meaningless tickets with ticker symbols on them believing that they're valuable because someone else will buy them for more later. And because we all believe this, it's actually true. It's like a collective fever dream that never ends. Stocks are no different from Air Jordans or Dutch tulips - the value of individual stocks changes according to the stories we tell about them, which can be influenced by the company becoming more profitable, making an acquisition, laying people off, getting a new CEO, or any number of things. The value has so much more to do with the stories we tell about the stocks than anything else - because the stories determine what someone else is willing to pay for them. It's not about math, it's about psychology and group psychology. I don't say this as like a really angry person shouting as a sky hoping it'll all stop. It just goes to show how as a group, we can make our expectations real by all expecting the same thing.