It is not the stock certificates that disappear, it is the value of the shares.
1,000 shares at $100 = worth $100,000
stock goes down to $50
1,000 shares at $50 = $50,000
$50,000 has disappeared not the shares themselves.
With a futures contract if you make $1,500 someone has lost $1,500 = zero sum
Mmm. Well, now that you have decided to throw derivatives into the mix, that complicates things. But the underlying is the same.
"1,000 shares at $100 = worth $100,000
stock goes down to $50
1,000 shares at $50 = $50,000
$50,000 has disappeared not the shares themselves..."
(
@vanzandt (Need your backup here on this one, because yer a stock dude...))
Ayn, the money did not vanish into nothingness. The shares still hold a value.
For example, if my company is worth $100,000, and I issue 2,000 shares at a value of $100 per share, and EVERYONE in the universe decides it is a great buy and buys them all up, then my company, the recipient of your dollars, has gone up by 100%. ($200,000).
My company is now worth $200,000, and the share price goes up to $200 per share.
So now I, the company, take out a loan based upon that $200,000 valuation for $100,000. I have taken your share money you have given me and got a loan for the $100K.
That is on the books, but not reflected in the share price yet, because it has not been disclosed.
I screw up somehow, and the company loses $100K in value. Now the shares are worth only $50 per share. You sell the shares for what your bought in at. You got back your initial investment, and the shares are now available for someone else to take a chance and feed back in another $100,000 into the company. And maybe it is me, the company. I buy back those shares I have sold you, with the loan I received from the bank, and have brought the company back up to $200K valuation.
Yes, I am still in debt for $100K, but the money represented by the shares did not disappear...It did not vanish.. It simply transferred in one form or another to someone else. The share value of the company changes, but the money itself does not disappear.
Money (and monetary value) is like energy...It never is created or destroyed...It is only transferred from form to another.
And chill, man. Just dig.