Stock is priced like anything else: what people are willing to pay. In theory a stock represents a share of a business, and so its price is a bet on the lifetim

Stock is priced like anything else: what people are willing to pay. In theory a stock represents a share of a business, and so its price is a bet on the lifetime return of the stock at the time of purchase -- if you pay $100 for a stock today, you expect the "net present value" of that stock to pan out to at least the net present value of $100 invested in something really safe (e.g. in treasuries... oh wait, hmm... gold, er ah no... in C-notes under your bed).