This chapter debunks the conventional wisdom that the primary function of the stock market is to be a value-creating institution, raising cash for corporations by pointing to the fact that the separation of ownership and control in the past occurred because of a managerial constraint, not a capital constraint, as well as the fact that, throughout the twentieth century and continuing in the twenty-first century, the U.S. stock markets have been net extractors of money from the corporate sector. The chapter explains the five general functions of the stock market: Control; Cash; Creation; Combination; and Compensation. It then analyzes how a broad adoption of the MSV view changed the relative importance of those functions and eventually brought about the imbalance between value creation and value extraction.
Using Trend Ratio and GNQTS to Assess Portfolio Performance in the U.S. Stock Market