A stock is a share of ownership in a company. Companies issue stocks in order to raise money from investors, and these shares are traded on a stock exchange like the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Investing in stocks can help you grow your wealth and reach your long-term financial goals.

There are many ways to start investing in stocks, including using your employer’s 401(k) plan, opening an individual retirement account (IRA), or using a brokerage account. However, before you buy any stock, make sure you’re in a good place financially: Pay down high-interest debt, have cash set aside for unexpected expenses and be ready to hold your investments for the long term.

Buying and holding stocks can be one of the most lucrative ways to grow your money over time, but you should only do it if you’re in a good financial position. If you’re not, consider a savings or money market account instead.

Stocks are an important part of the economy, giving people the opportunity to own a stake in some of the world’s most successful businesses. When a company does well, its stock prices usually rise, and investors can make money from this price appreciation or by receiving dividend payments. A stock’s performance can also be affected by other factors, such as news events or rumors.

While the value of a stock can go up or down, over the long term, the performance of most stocks has been positive. This is because stocks generally increase in value over the long run as businesses grow, and because stocks can offer investors a way to diversify their portfolios by owning shares of many different companies.

The type of stock you hold determines a few things, such as whether you can vote at shareholder meetings or receive dividends. There are several categories of stock, including common and preferred. Some types of stock are specialized, such as convertible preferred shares, which begin life as ordinary stock but can be converted into common stock if the business meets certain conditions. Some stocks are even categorized by industry, such as technology, energy or healthcare.

There are several different ways to categorize a stock, but most of these classification systems use the company’s capitalization and the amount of money it has earned over the past year as a measure of its health. In addition, some systems split companies into sectors like consumer discretionary or information technology, recognizing that they may react differently to economic conditions than other types of businesses.

A stock’s price can also be influenced by how much supply is available on the market and how much demand there is for it, which can affect its short-term trading behavior. This is known as technical analysis, and it’s often associated with speculators rather than true investors. More importantly, though, a company’s ability to continue to make more money than it spends should be the primary determinant of its stock price over the long term.