Intro to Stocks

Owning stock means owning shares or a part of a company, similar to owning a slice of a pizza pie. Companies issue stocks to raise money for business expansion and modernization, while investors buy stocks hoping their value will increase over time.

A ticker symbol is a unique group of letters identifying a company's stock on an exchange, which is a marketplace for buying and selling stocks (e.g., NASDAQ, NYSE). You can find a company's ticker symbol on financial news and information sites like Yahoo Finance.

Stocks earn money if their price increases from what you paid for them. Conversely, if the stock price drops, your investment decreases in value, but you cannot lose more than your original investment.

When searching for companies to invest in, you might encounter roadblocks. Brands, like Doritos (part of PepsiCo), are not companies themselves, so you need to search for the parent company. Private companies, like Staples, also cannot have their shares purchased. Subsidiaries, like Marvel Studios (part of Walt Disney Company), also won't have individual tickers; you'll need to find the parent company.

Before buying a company's stock, it's important to understand what a stock is, what a ticker symbol represents, and what factors to consider.