DEFINITION:

“A stock is a general term used to describe the ownership certificates of any company. A share, on the other hand reffers to the stock certificate of particular company . Holding a particular company’s share makes you a shareholder.”

The stock (also capital stock) of a corporation is all of the shares into which ownership of the corporation is divided. In American English, the shares are company known as “stocks”.

A stock is an investment. When you purchase a company’s stock, you’re purchasing a small piece of that company called a share.

A stock is a type of investment that represents an ownership share in a company. Investors buy stocks that they think will go up in value over time.

A share of company held by an individual or group. Corporations raise capital by issuing stocks & entitle the stock owners (shareholders) to partial ownership of the corporation. Stocks are bought & sold on what is called an Exchange. There are several types of stocks & the two most typical forms are preferred stock & common stock.

Owning a stock gives you certain rights & those rights can differ depending on the types of stock you own.

There are two main types of stock:

1. COMMON STOCK
2. PREFERRED STOCK

1. COMMON STOCK:

                                Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership. It being primarily used in the united states. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK.Common stock comes with voting rights; as well as the possibility of dividends & capital appreciation.
Each share of common stock represents a share of ownership in a company. If a company does well or the value of its assets increases, common stock can go up in value. On the other hand, if a company is doing poorly, a common stock can decrease in value. Simply put, common stock allows investors to share in a company’s success over time, which is why they can make great long-term investments.

2. PREFERRED STOCK

                                 “Preferred stock is also known as preference stock. The word “Preferred” refers to the dividends paid by the corporation. Each year, the holders of the preferred stock are to receive their dividends before the common shareholders are to receive any dividend”.Preferred stockholders generally do not have voting rights, though they have a higher claim on assets & earnings that the common stockholders.

Preferred shares can be converted to a fixed number of common shares, but common shares don’t have this benefit.Like bonds, preferred stocks are rated by the major credit rating companies. The rating for preferred stocks is generally lower than for bonds because preferred dividends do not carry the same guarantees as interest payments from bonds & because preferred stock holders claims are junior to those of all creditors.

Some things you need to know about stocks:

a. P/E RATIO –

The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) is the ratio for valuing a company that measures its currents share price relative to its pre share earnings (EPS)…. P/E ratios are used by investors & analysts to determine the relative value of a company’s shares in an apple to apples comparison.The ratio is used for valuing companies & to find out whether they are overvalued or undervalued.Earnings are important when valuing company’s stock because investors want to know how profitable a company is & how profitable it will be in the future.

b. CHART –

Chart reading is the single most important investing skill you’ll ever learn. To understand why stock chart are so valuable. Chart tells you a whole story about stocks. The weekly chart helps you see longer term trends. And daily chart helps you spot specific buy & sell signals while daily price fluctuation perspective.

c. Dividend –

If you don’t have time watch the market every day, and you want your stocks to make money without that kind of attention, look for dividends. Dividends are like interest in a savings account. You get paid regardless of the stock price. Dividends of 6% or more are not unheard of in high quality stocks. Before purchasing a stock, look for the dividend rate. If you simply want to park money in the market, invest in stocks with a high dividend. (For more, see Why Dividends Matter.)

d. Taxes Can Take A Bite Out Of Your Profits –

The FANG stocks – Facebook FB +0%, Amazon.com AMZN +0%, Netflix NFLX +0% and Google GOOGL +0% (Alphabet) — had a great run in 2015, with returns ranging from 34% to 134%, but from a tax perspective any investor who bought last year and eyeing the exits wants them to keep climbing. That’s because the one-year mark is a line of demarcation for the tax man.

Selling stocks, you’ve held for less than a year triggers a short-term capital gain, taxed as ordinary income. That could mean kicking back anywhere from 25% to 39.6% to Uncle Sam. But hold those same stocks for at least 12 months and the tax rate drops to 15% for most tax brackets.

WHY TO INVEST IN IT

Investing in the stock is the only way most people have of building real wealth. Stock is just one of many potential places to invest your money. Investing in stock is often risky, which draw attention to huge gains & losses of some investors.

• One of the primary benefits of investing in the stock market is the chance to grow your money. Over time, the stock market tends to rise in value, though the prices of individual stocks rise and fall daily. Investments in stable companies that are able to grow tend to make profits for investors. Likewise, investing in many different stocks will help build your wealth by leveraging growth in different sectors of the economy, resulting in a profit even if some of your individual stocks lose value.
• Stocks are risky This means they don’t have a guaranteed return and sometimes lose money. However, the long-run trend of the stock market has been undeniably upward. Stocks have the highest return of any investment asset over the long term. According to the Federal Reserve, the stock market has grown by an average of more than 10 percent a year over the past 50 years. During this same period, government bonds only grew by 5 percent a year. If you can stomach the market swings, you will see the highest return on your money with the stock market.

Purchasing stocks of companies operating in different sectors as well as segments is possible, which helps in optimizing the asset-allocation and provides diversification.