Mainly what I was describing is that it feels like real money because the gains are real, the commissions that you pay are real, and the losses are certainty real too.
I'll keep this brief. When discussing their portfolios,
some people have a misconception of what "gains" and "losses" really are.
Gains and losses aren't realized until you convert (sell or trade) the position back into cash. Unrealized losses and gains are just numbers in your account; I call them vapor because that's where they go if not realized. (Turned back into cash.) The IRS recognizes this as well. You don't pay Capital Gains until you cash-out at an increase. And Capital Losses can be used to offset gains.
You pay $1000 for a position in a particular stock. The market for that stock appreciates, and the stock becomes worth $5,000. You continue to hold the position, the "market" values the position at $5,000. You may think "I've made $4,000". No you haven't. You still have $1,000 in it, so the gain ($4,000), at this point, is un-realized. Now the market for that position contracts, and your position is now worth $2,500. Peeps say "I've lost $2,500". No you haven't. Your position has lost market value, but you haven't lost anything. You still have $1,000 in it. You're still "up" 250%. If you sell at this point, you have a realized GAIN, and will pay taxes on that increase over your initial $1,000.
If the market value declines to below $1,000 and you continue to hold (believing (gambling) that the value may come back up) you still haven't "lost" anything unless you sell for less than $1,000, (It is indeed a realized loss.) But if you hold and it comes back to say $1,500 and you then sell, you have a realized gain of 50%. You may think "I lost $3,500 on this transaction (it was worth $5,000 at its peak). No you didn't. You had a gain of 50%.
The guys that are paying stupid-money for cars on BaT are converting vapor-value into something tangible. This has been going on for some time now in everything. Real Estate, fine wines, artwork, collector cars, all kinds of stuff. Called "Store of Value". It is a hedge (insurance) against the "market" not having the cash in the future to purchase equity positions at current valuations. As the money supply contracts, so will the value of paper assets. Hard assets too. Its called deflation, and even though we are currently in an extraordinary 40-year inflation bump, what goes up must come down. Eventually.
Sorry. Not so "brief" after all.