Common Stocks

Stocks are an important part of an investor’s portfolio as these can provide capital growth and dividend yields. People interested in building a balanced portfolio can seek advice from the legendary Warren Buffet, who owns Berkshire Hathaway – the company that manages over $200 billion in stocks in public firms. Warren Buffet’s top picks include Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and American Express (NYSE:AXP). He is the third richest after Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and is known to provide intelligent investment advice to people.

Common stocks provide equity ownership in a company where the owner has a voting right in the company’s business matters, which means, the company divides the ownership with the shareholders. They have the right to receive a percentage of dividends -if the board of directors declares it. In the case of bankruptcy, the holders may receive funds after the payment have been made to the bondholders, creditors and preferred shareholders, and in many cases, they may not get anything on liquidation bankruptcy. 

In 1602, shares were first introduced by the Dutch East India Company and then such investment options were opened at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Now-a-day thousands of options are traded on 16 global exchanges that include Nasdaq, NYSE, Deutsche Borse, LSE, TMX Group. Some shares fail to get registered to the popular exchanges and may be traded through the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB).