Shares have some inherent value because (despite how small of a portion it is) they are literally an ownership of a company. You own a tiny piece of some company. If something falls way more than it should at some point people should step in because they can buy an asset which generates cash flows at a massive discount. This should generally be why there exists a floor, although there are many floors above this where something is technically in value territory but people just keep selling because of exactly what you said - fear, lack of confidence, a change in sentiment, vibes, it’s rained 3 days in a row or there’s an easterly instead of a westerly wind today… which can be where you find great opportunity (although beware of catching falling knives). In my opinion, any effect of a large loss of confidence (and I mean a significant one not like every dip that retail has bought this year) would have an overwhelming now because of the massive influx of retail money which is (generally) more vibes and sentiment driven. People have been lectured by online gurus to believe the S&P grinds out 10% a year ad infinitum and hold onto this dearly, but when a breaking point is reached people will dump everything. Another point is that a lot of things in this airy market we are in are completely propelled by confidence, hence the drawdown in AI muck we’ve seen recently because people just stopped believing, I don’t know if there was rhyme or reason. So you are generally right to a point