Suppose a group of persons or a business organization propose to start a new project requiring large amount of money which they are unable to arrange. They form a '''public limited company ''' and invite the public to be a part of the project. The company as per laws of the government announces the issue of shares through which any eligible person can become a shareholder of the company. The word stock simply refers to a supply. You may have a stock of T-shirts in your closet or a stock of pencils in your desk. In the financial market, stock refers to a supply of money that a company has raised. This supply comes from people who have given the company money in the hope that the company will make their money grow. A market is a public place where things are bought and sold. The term "stock market" refers to the business of buying and selling stock. The stock market is not a specific place, though some people use the term "Wall Street"—the main street in New York City's financial district—to refer to the U.S. stock market in general.

In financial markets, a '''share''' is a REIT's. In British English, use of the word ''shares'' in the plural to refer to stock is so common that it almost replaces the word ''stock'' itself. In American English, the plural ''stocks'' is widely used instead of ''shares'', in other words to refer to the stock (or perhaps originally stock certificates) of even a single company. Traditionalist demands that the plural ''stocks'' be used only when referring to stock of more than one company are rarely heard nowadays.

The income received from shares is called a dividend, and a person owning shares is called a shareholder.

A share is one of a finite number of equal portions in the capital of a company, entitling the owner to a proportion of distributed, non-reinvested profits known as dividends, and to a portion of the value of the company in case of liquidation. Shares can be voting or non-voting, meaning they either do or do not carry the right to vote on the board of directors and corporate policy. Whether this right exists often affects the value of the share. Voting and non-voting shares are also known as Class A and B shares respectively.

See also...

• Mutual organization

  External links

• Oldest share—the oldest share in the world (Voc 1606)

  Category:Equity securities