What is the meaning of Stock?

Stock is a stock is an investment that represents part ownership in a corporation and entitles you to part of that corporation's earnings and assets. Common stocks provide voting rights to shareholders but no guarantee of dividend payments. Preferred stocks provide no voting rights but guarantee a dividend payment. Although common stocks are riskier, and their prices are more volatile than preferred stock, they also offer the greater potential for growth. In the past, as a shareholder you received a paper stock certificate-called a security-verifying the shares you owned. Today, share ownership is usually recorded electronically, and the shares are held in street name by your brokerage firm.