What are stocks?

Shares, equity, or stock, it all means the same thing; Stock represents a claim on the company's assets and earnings.

Holding a company's stock means that you are one of the many owners (shareholders) of a company and, as such, you have a claim (albeit usually very small) to everything the company owns. Yes, this means that technically you own a tiny sliver of every piece of furniture, every trademark, and every contract of the company. As an owner, you are entitled to your share of the company's earnings as well as any voting rights attached to the stock.

As you acquire more stock, your ownership stake in the company becomes greater.

But with the advantage that a stock hat  limited liability, which means that, as an owner of a stock, you are not personally liable if the company is not able to pay its debts,  but you are entitled to a portion of the company’s profits, and have a claim on assets.

Some companies pay out dividends, but many others do not.

Without dividends, an investor can make money on a stock only through its appreciation in the open market, that means that  you buy a stok and wait in the hope its  value will increase over the time with the risk of depreciation, which means that the value decrease over the time.