In financial markets, a share is a unit of account for various financial instruments including stocks (ordinary or preferential), and investments in limited partnerships, and REITs. The common feature of all these is equity participation (limited in the case of preference shares).

Contents 1 National variations 1.1 United States 2 Shareholders and dividends 3 Valuation 4 Tax treatment 5 Share certificates 6 see also 7 References 8 External links

National variations

United States

In American English, the plural stocks is widely used instead of shares, in other words to refer to the stock (or perhaps originally stock certificates) of even a single company. Traditionalist demands that the plural stocks be used only when referring to stock of more than one company are rarely heard nowadays.

Shareholders and dividends

The income received from shares is called a dividend, and a person owning shares is called a shareholder.

Valuation

Shares are valued according to various principles in different markets, but a basic premise is that a share is worth the price at which a transaction would be likely to occur were t