Single unit of ownership

A stock (or share) is a single unit of ownership of a company. When a company lists itself on an exchange it issues a large number of stocks for people to exchange (buy or sell). Each stock is a single unit of ownership.

For example if a company has $100 million in assets and $50 in total liabilities, that's $50 million of value. If the company issues a total of 50 million shares, this equates to $1 of value per stock.

Images of stock market prices that can be seen flashing across trader’s screens represent the price of one share of stock.