Wouldn't you love to be a business owner without ever having to show
up at work? Imagine if you could sit back, watch your company grow, and
collect the dividend checks as the money rolls in! This situation might sound like a pipe dream, but it's closer to reality than you might think.
As you've probably guessed, we're talking about owning stocks.
This fabulous category of financial instruments is, without a doubt,
one of the greatest tools ever invented for building wealth. Stocks are a
part, if not the cornerstone, of nearly any investment portfolio. When
you start on your road to financial freedom, you need to have a solid
understanding of stocks and how they trade on the stock market.
Over the last few decades, the average person's interest in the stock
market has grown exponentially. What was once a toy of the rich has now
turned into the vehicle of choice for growing wealth. This demand
coupled with advances in trading technology has opened up the markets so
that nowadays nearly anybody can own stocks.
Despite their popularity, however, most people don't fully understand
stocks. Much is learned from conversations around the water cooler with
others who also don't know what they're talking about. Chances are
you've already heard people say things like, "Bob's cousin made a
killing in XYZ company, and now he's got another hot tip..." or "Watch
out with stocks--you can lose your shirt in a matter of days!" So much
of this misinformation is based on a get-rich-quick mentality, which was
especially prevalent during the amazing dotcom
market in the late '90s. People thought that stocks were the magic
answer to instant wealth with no risk. The ensuing dotcom crash proved
that this is not the case. Stocks can (and do) create massive amounts of
wealth, but they aren't without risks. The only solution to this is
education. The key to protecting yourself in the stock market is to
understand where you are putting your money.
It is for this reason that we've created this tutorial: to provide
the foundation you need to make investment decisions yourself. We'll
start by explaining what a stock is and the different types of stock,
and then we'll talk about how they are traded, what causes prices to
change, how you buy stocks and much more.
The Definition of a Stock
Plain and simple, stock is a share in the ownership of a company. Stock represents a claim on the company's assets and earnings. As you acquire more stock, your ownership stake in the company becomes greater. Whether you say shares, equity, or stock, it all means the same thing.
Being an Owner
Holding a company's stock means that you are one of the many owners (shareholders)
of a company and, as such, you have a claim (albeit usually very small)
to everything the company owns. Yes, this means that technically you
own a tiny sliver of every piece of furniture, every trademark, and
every contract of the company. As an owner, you are entitled to your
share of the company's earnings as well as any voting rights attached to
the stock.
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Example stock certificate
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A
stock is represented by a stock certificate. This is a fancy piece of
paper that is proof of your ownership. In today's computer age, you
won't actually get to see this document because your brokerage keeps
these records electronically, which is also known as holding shares "in street name".
This is done to make the shares easier to trade. In the past, when a
person wanted to sell his or her shares, that person physically took the
certificates down to the brokerage. Now, trading with a click of the
mouse or a phone call makes life easier for everybody.
Being a
shareholder of a public company does not mean you have a say in the
day-to-day running of the business. Instead, one vote per share to elect
the board of directors
at annual meetings is the extent to which you have a say in the
company. For instance, being a Microsoft shareholder doesn't mean you
can call up Bill Gates and tell him how you think the company should be
run. In the same line of thinking, being a shareholder of Anheuser Busch
doesn't mean you can walk into the factory and grab a free case of Bud
Light!
The management of the company is supposed to increase the
value of the firm for shareholders. If this doesn't happen, the
shareholders can vote to have the management removed, at least in
theory. In reality, individual investors like you and I don't own enough
shares to have a material influence on the company. It's really the big
boys like large institutional investors and billionaire entrepreneurs who make the decisions.
For
ordinary shareholders, not being able to manage the company isn't such a
big deal. After all, the idea is that you don't want to have to work to
make money, right? The importance of being a shareholder is that you
are entitled to a portion of the company's profits and have a claim on
assets. Profits are sometimes paid out in the form of dividends.
The more shares you own, the larger the portion of the profits you get.
Your claim on assets is only relevant if a company goes bankrupt. In case of liquidation, you'll receive what's left after all the creditors have been paid. This last point is worth repeating:
the
importance of stock ownership is your claim on assets and earnings.
Without this, the stock wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on.
Another extremely important feature of stock is its limited liability,
which means that, as an owner of a stock, you are not personally liable
if the company is not able to pay its debts. Other companies such as
partnerships
are set up so that if the partnership goes bankrupt the creditors can
come after the partners (shareholders) personally and sell off their
house, car, furniture, etc. Owning stock means that, no matter what, the
maximum value you can lose is the value of your investment. Even if a
company of which you are a shareholder goes bankrupt, you can never lose
your personal assets.
Debt vs. Equity Why
does a company issue stock? Why would the founders share the profits
with thousands of people when they could keep profits to themselves? The
reason is that at some point every company needs to raise money. To do
this, companies can either borrow it from somebody or raise it by
selling part of the company, which is known as issuing stock. A company
can borrow by taking a loan from a bank or by issuing bonds. Both
methods fit under the umbrella of debt financing. On the other hand, issuing stock is called equity financing.
Issuing stock is advantageous for the company because it does not
require the company to pay back the money or make interest payments
along the way. All that the shareholders get in return for their money
is the hope that the shares will someday be worth more than what they
paid for them. The first sale of a stock, which is issued by the private
company itself, is called the initial public offering (IPO).
It
is important that you understand the distinction between a company
financing through debt and financing through equity. When you buy a debt
investment such as a bond, you are guaranteed the return of your money
(the principal) along with promised interest payments. This isn't the
case with an equity investment. By becoming an owner, you assume the
risk of the company not being successful - just as a small business
owner isn't guaranteed a return, neither is a shareholder. As an owner,
your claim on assets is less than that of creditors. This means that if a
company goes bankrupt and liquidates, you, as a shareholder, don't get
any money until the banks and bondholders have been paid out; we call
this absolute priority.
Shareholders earn a lot if a company is successful, but they also stand
to lose their entire investment if the company isn't successful.
Risk It
must be emphasized that there are no guarantees when it comes to
individual stocks. Some companies pay out dividends, but many others do
not. And there is no obligation to pay out dividends even for those
firms that have traditionally given them. Without dividends, an investor
can make money on a stock only through its appreciation in the open market. On the downside, any stock may go bankrupt, in which case your investment is worth nothing.
Although
risk might sound all negative, there is also a bright side. Taking on
greater risk demands a greater return on your investment. This is the
reason why stocks have historically outperformed other investments such
as bonds or savings accounts. Over the long term, an investment in
stocks has historically had an average return of around 10-12%.
For more :- If you're interested in learning more about investing outside of just stocks, you can sign up to our free
Investing Basics newsletter.
Source- Investopedia
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