Stocks 101

What you'll learn

• ✓Explain shareholding
• ✓Distinguish dividends vs buybacks
• ✓Describe voting rights

Lessons

1. 🍕
   A Slice of a Company

   What it actually means to own a stock
   Start →
2. Two Ways You Make Money

   Finish the previous lesson to unlock
3. What You Actually Own

   Finish the previous lesson to unlock
4. Why Equity Is Risky

   Finish the previous lesson to unlock
5. Reading a Stock Quote

   Finish the previous lesson to unlock
6. Final Boss: Stocks in the Wild

   Finish the previous lesson to unlock

Sources

All content is drawn from the sources below. We deliberately avoid unverified material.

• What Are Stocks?
  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Investor.gov) · institutional
  Plain-English source for shareholder rights, common vs preferred, dividends and capital gains.
  https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/investment-products/stocks
• Investments (Bodie, Kane, Marcus)
  McGraw-Hill · book
  Reference for equities chapters: dividends, buybacks, capital gains, common vs preferred shares.
• Principles of Corporate Finance (Brealey, Myers, Allen)
  McGraw-Hill · book
  Equity financing chapters used for residual claim, bankruptcy ordering, and the role of common stock.
• Investment Valuation (Damodaran)
  Wiley · book
  Common stock section, dividends vs buybacks, and basics of P/E and yield used in lesson 5.
• NYSE Listed Company Manual
  New York Stock Exchange · institutional
  Listing standards reference, including rules around voting structures and dual-class shares.
  https://nyseguide.srorules.com/listed-company-manual
• NASDAQ Listing Rules
  NASDAQ Stock Market · institutional
  Listing standards reference for share class disclosure and shareholder rights.
  https://listingcenter.nasdaq.com/rulebook/nasdaq/rules
• Enron Corporation Chapter 11 filing (December 2001)
  U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York · institutional
  Used as a real example of common shareholders being wiped out in bankruptcy.
• Lehman Brothers Holdings Chapter 11 filing (September 2008)
  U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of New York · institutional
  Used as a real example of equity holders losing essentially everything.
• FTX Trading Ltd. Chapter 11 filing (November 2022)
  U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of Delaware · institutional
  Used as a recent example of equity wipeout in a major collapse.
• Meta Platforms historical share price data (2021 to 2023)
  Public market data (NASDAQ) · data
  Used for the roughly 76 percent peak-to-trough drawdown example in lesson 4.
• Amazon.com investor relations
  Amazon.com, Inc. · institutional
  Confirms Amazon has not paid a regular cash dividend in its public history.
  https://ir.aboutamazon.com/