system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Where does all the money go when a stock market crashes? For instance, where did all the money in the World Market vanish to after the crash of 2008?
gpt
It didn't go anywhere, because it never existed. An object or stock's value is independent of money; it's simply what the object is perceived as worth.

Imagine a foil trading card. You are the only person who has one, so everyone wants it. They offer to buy if from you; $5, $10, $20, $100! Wow, you're worth a $100! That's great, until a bunch more people get the foil trading cards, so now, people will only pay $10 for it. Did you lose $90? No, because that $90 never existed in the first place.