Your Oratory

The stock market 101 answer for “what is a stock’s outstanding shares” is the stock’s share float and restricted shares added together.  Well that probably doesn’t do you much good.  A better answer is it’s the share’s in the corporation that the corporation itself doesn’t have direct control over.  It’s what percentage of the ownership in the company isn’t owned by the company itself.  Restricted shares are those that can’t be traded on the open market.  These are generally held by insiders, either people who work for the company or with the company or industry in a way that they could have inside information.  This is to help ease trade manipulation either in buying or selling.  Sorry, you can’t (not at least lawfully) let the public think something bad is going to happen, buy up cheap shares, then release a report that everything is fine.

Stock is ownership in a piece of a corporation.  To find out exactly what percentage of the company you own you divide the total outstanding shares from the total number of shares you own. Didyou realize when you purchase shares in a  company you are getting a piece of the vote, assets, rights to dividends, and potential to lose value, but not liability if the company bankrupts or performs illegal or harmful actions?  Remembering that a corporation is real will help prevent you from slipping from investing down to gambling.  It’s easy to make crazy bets when the price per share isn’t attached to dollars and the company letters are little more than alphabet soup.  You wouldn’t buy a house just because the price dropped today, it would actually have to fit your lifestyle and resources.  Take the time to learn about stocks before you spend your savings.