A price is just a quote until someone actually pays it. It’s just an offer. Imagine someone walking up to the door of your house and offering you $1,000 for it. That’s just an ask. It is only when an Ask meets an Offer that the exchange price means something. It means the “thing” is worth more than the money to one person, and less than the money to the other. It still doesn’t tell you what the thing is actually worth. Price is not value. It is just a tool we use to release value by moving things around. The “Market Capitalisation” of a business listed on a stock exchange is the number of shares multiplied by the most recent exchange price. It is not the value of the company. Say your house could be counted up in little shares, and someone offered you $100 for a brick you knew was worth $5 (and you still kept the house). You wouldn’t multiply that out and get all excited about the value of the whole house. The shares of companies move wildly at times. The future is complicated, uncertain, and ambiguous. It is better to think of price as a question than an answer. Value unravels its true self over time, on one of many possible paths.
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