Again you dont seem to get the concept. While most people invest with the intention to sell at a higher price, you are still exchanging money for a good. Your intention to resell doesnt change thats you bought a good and not an alternative form of currency (unless thats what you actually bought). Lets switch it away from stocks and Ill use a real world example. Last January I purchased a video card for my computer for around $600. I exchanged my money for a good. I used it for 10 months or so and then I sold it for $800. So I made $200. However If I sold the video card after 3 months it would have only been worth around $500. Would you have deemed me to have lost money at that point? No because its a video card, its not expected to go up in value. I bought it at an agreed upon price based on the value at the time and only ended up selling it when the market changed. If I was forced to sell it at the $500 then I would have lost money, but just by owning it I didnt lose any money because my purchase was based on what it was worth when I bought the video card and I bought the video card itself not its future value.
You are right in some part that it is a semantical detail, as you clearly understand the base concept, but its an important distinction to make when look at how you view buying and selling stocks. If you view stocks as money then you are going to end up losing actual money
and If none of that has helped clarify things maybe the wire can