In the stock market,for someone to make money, does that mean someone has to lose money?

Question

When I am buy stock at a lower price point than it was trading a 1 day or week, month or year later, does it mean that somebody during that same time frame is losing the difference?

In: Economics

Answer 1

No.

You have a pile of wood. You can sell that wood for $150.

You put in effort, and $50 in other supplies, and use that wood to make a nice table. You can now sell that table for $300.

You have increased the value of your assets, but nobody has lost money. I guess you could argue that to buy yours, some other table likely went unsold, costing that person money. But that’s a really indirect connection, and not always guaranteed.