&gt; that&#x27;s what the market is primarily for, getting capital to companies that need it;<p>Personally, I believe that is incorrect.  The amount of market activity related to getting capital to companies is dwarfed by other activity.  As data points:<p>- Commodities markets don&#x27;t allocate capital to companies (or farmers or whatever) at all.<p>- Most new stock sales (IPO or otherwise) happen outside of the public markets first, and are allocated to a minority of the market participants.<p>I think a much better way to think of the markets is as primarily about pricing risk.  That this risk assessment function happens to provide a good way to allocate capital to companies is a by product.