SoFi reported second-quarter results yesterday and the market knocked the stock down around 9 percent. The number that caught my eye was tangible book value per share, which grew 80 percent year over year. You can read the full breakdown over at The Motley Fool, but I want to talk about what that disconnect actually means for people who own individual stocks.

Tangible book value is a fancy way of saying what a company's assets are worth after you subtract liabilities and strip out intangible things like goodwill. It is the closest thing to a floor price for a business. When that number grows 80 percent in twelve months, the company is building real equity. Balance sheets do not lie, or at least they are harder to manipulate than sentiment.

So why did the stock drop?

Because short-term expectations were higher than the results, or the guidance was softer than people wanted, or some analyst on Wall Street trimmed a price target by four dollars. I have not spent time digging into the specific line items. For most people reading this, the specifics do not matter much. What matters is the pattern.

A company can be objectively stronger than it was a year ago, building real book value, growing equity on the balance sheet, and the stock can still fall nearly 10 percent in a day. That is not a broken market. That is just how markets work in the short run. Price reflects what people expect will happen next quarter. Value reflects what the business actually owns and earns.

I have watched this happen hundreds of times over the years. A bank reports solid loan growth, deposits are up, tangible book is climbing, and the stock sells off because someone did not like the tone of the forward outlook on the conference call. The people who panic sell on that kind of news generally are not the ones holding the stock five years later anyway.

I should be clear about something. I am not telling you to buy SoFi. I do not own it, I have not done a deep dive on their lending book, and digital banking is a crowded, competitive space. What I am saying is that a 9 percent drop on a day when the company's tangible book value grew 80 percent is worth paying attention to. Stocks and businesses are not always moving in the same direction on any given day. Over years, they tend to converge. Over hours, they go wherever momentum takes them.

If you own individual stocks, you need to know which one you are watching. The daily price, or the balance sheet.

As always, I am sharing my perspective, not professional financial advice. Talk to someone who knows your situation before you make investment decisions.