Stocks: Getting Started With Stocks

How would you like to own a major corporation? Chances are you already do, at least a piece of one.

That piece of a corporation is a stock, or share. If you have purchased stock in a company, you and the other stockholders in that company are the owners.

But that isn't really what it is like to own stocks. The Bill Gateses of the business world don't drop you -- the owner -- a line to go over the latest sales figures or seek your approval on a new product launch. But collectively, stockholders do own a large piece of publicly traded companies and have a big say in how a company operates. ...