Amazing how the “money experts” know nothing. It is not a loss. A loss is when someone sells something for a lower price than the price at which it was bought. If you don’t sell it, you don’t lose anything. Whenever it is convenient for their agenda, any time the index goes down during the trading day, they shout about the “loss.” In reality, the index goes up, and it goes down. Seizing upon any one number and giving it meaning, is stupid, and is done only to promote an agenda.
The index is a misleading number. It is the average of the prices of the most recent transactions. If ONE share is sold at $10, that is the number for that stock. If a million shares are sold for $10, that is the number for that stock. The most recent transaction price does not reflect volume: the amount of money that changed hands.
The public, well trained by the media, fixates on the ONE number, the DJIA. It is the only number recited on the radio “news” on the hour and the half hour. It would really be nice if it were possible to summarize the entire US economy in one number, but it’s not possible.
Bank interest rates go up and they go down. When they go up, banks are favored for savings. When they go down, more people think of the stock market as a place to put their money. This is never mentioned when reporting about the stock market.
A huge majority of Americans have no idea what the Dow Jones Industrial Average is. All they know is that when it goes up it doesn’t affect them.