Share
A small piece of a company, giving you a claim on part of its profits and value.
What is a share?
A share is a slice of a company. If a firm has a million shares and you own one, you own a millionth of it: of its buildings, its brands, its future profits.
Shares pay in two ways. One is the dividend, the part of profit the company hands out to shareholders. The other is a rise in price, when other people will pay more for the share than you did.
A share's price changes every trading day as expectations about the company and the economy change. A company can go bust, and then its shares can become worthless.
That is why one share is risky. Hundreds of shares at once, from different companies and countries, are far less risky together than each one alone.
A company with 10 million lei of profit that pays out half across a million shares pays a dividend of 5 lei a share.
How do you make money from shares?
From dividends, the part of profit the company pays shareholders, and from a rising price if you sell for more than you paid.
Can you lose all your money on a share?
Yes, if the company goes bust. The risk falls sharply when you hold shares in hundreds of firms at once, for example through an index fund.
Related terms
Sources
- Robert J. Shiller, monthly US stock market data (ie_data.xls), accessed 27 September 2026 · shillerdata.com
This page explains mechanisms and shows what happened in the past. It does not recommend products, say what to buy, or take your situation into account.