Stocks & Shares
Ownership in companies — shares, dividends, and how the market values them.
10 guides12+ key termsTopic quiz available
The stocks & shares curriculum
Beginner10 guides
Buybacks
How and why a company buys back its own shares: how repurchases shrink the outstanding count and lift per-share figures, why buybacks are an alternative to dividends, the mechanics (open-market and tender offers), the difference between treasury and cancelled shares, and the serious criticisms — buybacks at high prices, debt-funded repurchases, and masking stock-comp dilution.
Common Stock
The ordinary shares most investors own: what common stock is, the rights it carries (voting and a residual claim on profits and assets), how you make money from it through growth and dividends, why it sits last in line, and how it differs from preferred stock.
Dividends
The income side of owning shares: what dividends are, how dividend yield and the payout ratio work, the key dates (declaration, ex-dividend, record, payment), why reinvesting them supercharges compounding, the difference between growth and income investing, and why dividends are never guaranteed.
Float
The shares actually available to trade: what free float is, how it differs from the outstanding count, what gets excluded (insiders, strategic holders, lock-ups), and why float drives liquidity, volatility and how much a single buyer or seller can move the price.
IPOs
How a company first sells shares to the public: what an IPO is, why companies go public, the underwriting process from prospectus to first trade, the difference between primary and secondary shares, lock-up periods, the risks of the first-day pop, and the newer alternatives of direct listings and SPACs.
Market Capitalisation
What a company is worth in the market: how market cap is calculated (price times shares), why the share price alone tells you nothing about size, the size bands from mega- to micro-cap and what they imply for risk, how free float adjusts index weighting, and how market cap differs from enterprise value.
Outstanding Shares
How many shares a company actually has: the difference between authorised, issued, outstanding and treasury shares, how the count changes through issuance and buybacks, what dilution means for your ownership, and why the outstanding count underpins ownership percentage, earnings per share and market cap.
Preferred Stock
The income-and-priority share that sits between bonds and common stock: what preferred stock is, its fixed dividend paid ahead of common, why it usually carries no vote and limited upside, the main features (cumulative, callable, convertible), and when it suits an investor.
Secondary Offerings
How a company sells more shares after its IPO: what a follow-on offering is, the crucial difference between dilutive offerings (new shares that raise capital and dilute owners) and non-dilutive offerings (existing holders selling), why each happens, the usual effect on the share price, and the shelf and at-the-market mechanisms behind them.
What Is A Stock?
A clear, complete guide to what a share of stock really is — what you own, how shares come to exist, how their price is set, what rights you get, and the risks of owning them.