What I'm saying is that unless you want to say that there are multiple futures for a company, only one value for the total worth of a company can be true. It might have a different market value (after all, people are willing to buy used items on eBay for more than they can buy the same thing new retail), but there is only one true value. But at the time of purchase you don't know what that's going to be, so you buy it for what you think that value will be. (Or, hopefully, you get a deal and buy it for less.)

To put it at a more concrete example, if you could magically, instantaneously, purchase all of the stock of a company at the market price, you'd own that company. But it would be stupid to do so unless the real value of that company was more; if it wasn't, all you'd be doing is moving your money from your bank account into the company and back into your bank account at some other time, all without any profit. But you can't really do that instantaneously, and that works out well for the marketplace, because that frantic buyup tips off other people that they should buy that stock, too, which drives up the price, and then you stop buying when it gets to the point where you won't make money anymore.

What I'm getting at is that the market value and the ultimate correct value of a company are two different things. The stock market works to make the market value be the consensus of what people think the ultimate value of the company will be, but what they think is not (necessarily) the same as what will ultimately come to fruition.

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Ok, I'll commit to that.

Woohoo! Where'd that Kool-Aid get to?