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Clear filtersWhat a Stock Actually Is
A share is a legal claim on a company's assets and earnings, ranked behind everyone else with a claim. That ordering explains most of how equities behave.
How a Stock Exchange Works
An exchange is a matching engine surrounded by rules. Understanding the order book, the market maker and the auctions explains why liquidity appears and disappears at particular moments.
Order Types, and What Each One Guarantees
A market order fills immediately at the best available price; a limit order fills only at a set price or better. Every order type trades certainty of price against certainty of execution, and none guarantees both.
The Bid-Ask Spread
The bid-ask spread is the gap between the highest bid and the lowest ask. It is the price of immediacy, paid on every round trip, and the most reliable live read on how liquid a stock is.
Market Hours, Premarket and After-Hours
US stocks trade in a regular session from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern, plus premarket and after-hours sessions. The extended sessions run on different rules, thinner books and less reliable prices.
Market Capitalization
Market cap is price multiplied by share count. It is the market's price for the whole equity, and it is the single most useful number for deciding whether two companies are comparable at all.
ETFs, Index Funds and Mutual Funds
A fund is a basket sold as one security. The differences that matter are how it trades, what decides its holdings, and what it charges.