What Is A Share Of Stock....

So what is a share of stock anyway?

When you buy a share of stock in a corporation you are known as a shareholder. A shareholder basically owns a share of a corporation based on how many shares of stock you own for that corporation. Most investors only own a tiny portion of any corporation. Therefore, a typical shareholder has no real say so as to the day-to-day operations of the corporation.

The whole purpose of a corporation issuing shares of stock is to attract money. The whole purpose of a typical shareholder buying shares is the hope that those shares will go up in price over time.

However, remember there are no guarantees that your shares will be worth more than what you paid for them. Even well run companies have stock prices that decline for a variety of reasons some of which can not even really be explained.