Browse the library
Topic
Stocks
36 guides in Finabase Learn
- American depositary receipt (ADR) A US-traded certificate that represents shares of a foreign company, letting investors buy it in dollars on a US exchange.
- Asset allocation: how stock, bond and cash mixes have behaved What asset allocation is, how 23 years of stock and bond mixes actually behaved, how rebalancing and target-date funds work, and what shapes the right mix.
- Asset classes explained: stocks, bonds, cash, real assets and more What an asset class is, how stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, commodities, currencies, crypto and derivatives differ, and what 19 years of ETF prices show.
- Authorized shares The maximum number of shares a company's charter allows it to issue; issued and outstanding shares are usually far fewer.
- Blue-chip stock A share in a large, long-established, financially sound company with a record of steady earnings, often paying dividends.
- Common Stock The ordinary ownership shares of a company, which carry voting rights and a residual claim on profits after creditors and preferred holders.
- Cyclical Stock A stock whose earnings rise and fall strongly with the business cycle, such as automakers, airlines and industrial firms.
- Defensive Stock A stock whose demand and earnings hold up in recessions, such as utilities, consumer staples and healthcare.
- Delisting The removal of a stock from an exchange, either voluntarily or because it no longer meets listing standards.
- Dilution The reduction in existing shareholders' ownership percentage and per-share earnings when a company issues new shares.
- Dividend A payment a company makes to its shareholders out of profits, usually in cash and often quarterly in the US.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) A price-weighted index of 30 large US companies, first published in 1896 and the oldest widely followed US stock average.
- Equity Ownership in a company: shares of stock, or on the balance sheet the assets left after subtracting liabilities.
- Float The number of a company's shares available for public trading, excluding shares held by insiders and restricted holders.
- Fractional shares Portions of a single share, offered by many brokers so investors can buy by dollar amount rather than whole shares.
- Growth stock A share in a company expected to grow revenue and earnings faster than average, usually priced at high valuation multiples.
- Initial public offering (IPO) The first sale of a private company's shares to the public, after which they trade on a stock exchange.
- Large-cap stock A stock of a company with a large market value, commonly defined as $10 billion or more.
- Market capitalization A company's share price times its shares outstanding: what the market values the whole company's equity at.
- Micro-cap stock A stock of a very small company, commonly $50 million to $300 million in market value, often thinly traded and volatile.
- Mid-cap stock A stock of a company with a medium market value, commonly between about $2 billion and $10 billion.
- Over the counter (OTC) Trading in securities that are not listed on a national exchange, arranged through broker-dealer networks such as the OTC Markets tiers.
- Penny stock A low-priced, usually small and thinly traded share; the SEC generally treats stocks under $5 as penny stocks, with exceptions.
- Preferred stock A class of shares that pays a set dividend ahead of common stock and ranks above it in liquidation, usually without voting rights.
- Reverse stock split A corporate action that combines shares into fewer, higher-priced ones, such as 1-for-10, often to meet an exchange minimum price.
- Secondary offering A sale of shares after a company’s IPO, either newly issued stock that dilutes holders or existing stock sold by large shareholders.
- Share buyback A company repurchasing its own shares from the market, reducing the share count and returning cash to shareholders.
- Shares outstanding The total number of a company’s shares held by all shareholders, including insiders, used to compute market cap and per-share figures.
- Small-cap stock A company with a relatively small stock-market value, often roughly $300 million to $2 billion, though index providers draw the lines differently.
- Stock A share of ownership in a company, giving the holder a claim on part of its assets and profits and, usually, a vote on how it is run.
- Stock split A change that multiplies a company’s share count and divides its share price by the same factor, leaving the total value of every holding unchanged.
- Stocks as an asset class: long-run returns, drawdowns and recovery How stocks behave as a portfolio holding: 33 years of SPY returns over 1-, 5-, 10- and 20-year windows, how deep the falls went and how long recoveries took.
- Ticker symbol The short code of letters that identifies a stock, ETF or other listed security on an exchange and in every quote and order.
- Value stock A stock that trades cheaply relative to its earnings, book value or cash flow, often in a mature or out-of-favor business.
- Warrant A security issued by a company that gives the holder the right to buy its shares at a fixed price before a set date, creating new shares if exercised.
- What is a stock? A complete beginner’s guide to shares What owning a share really means, why companies issue stock, how prices are set, how investors make or lose money, and the risks to understand first.
Educational content, not investment advice. Finabase Learn explains how markets and tools work. It does not recommend any security or strategy, and examples are for illustration only. Investing involves risk, including the loss of principal. Rules and figures are for the United States unless stated and can change — check the cited source before you act.