What Is a Stock, Really?
A share of stock is a literal, tiny slice of ownership in a real company.
When you buy one share of a company, you own a sliver of that actual business - its factories, its brand, its future profits (or losses). The stock's PRICE is just what the market is currently willing to pay for that sliver.
Multiply the price by every share that exists (shares outstanding) and you get Market Cap - the market's current price tag on the ENTIRE company. This is why a $50 stock with 6 billion shares (a huge company) and a $500 stock with 10 million shares (a tiny one) can be wildly different sizes despite the smaller number looking 'cheaper.'
Every stock trades under a short ticker symbol - AAPL, NVDA, TGT - basically its username on the exchange. You'll use tickers everywhere in BullYeah, from search to the URL of every stock's Bullpen page.
Apple trades as AAPL. Its market cap is one of the largest in the world - not because its share price is the highest (it isn't), but because Apple has billions of shares outstanding. Open its live Bullpen page and check the Financials panel for its actual market cap and shares outstanding.
Open AAPL's live Bullpen →Sign in to take this lesson's quiz and track your progress.