Shares are a piece of the company, which will give you a proportion of profits if you own it. Once you buy a share, you become part of the company, without the right of decision making. For example, if a company issued two million shares and you buy 200 shares, then your share in this company would be 0.01 percent. If you want to know how much a company is worth on the stock market, you need to know the company market capitalization. So, multiply the number of shares issued from the company with the current price of the share.

There is a discussion if it is better to trade single stocks or indices, which represent a group of stocks from the same industry. When you start trading, it is a dilemma what stocks to choose. It is not easy to find stocks which will work good for you and bring success. Professional traders have some rules of course, but it is not 100% sure that they will bring success. The advantages of indices is that they show a smaller range of fluctuations compared to individual stocks, and if a stock does not go according to your expectations, another one inside the index will go, so they compensate for each other’s moves.