How do stocks work?
Being mindful about stocks and how they function is essential for strong returns on investment. This will provide substantial financial benefits. Wisely spending your capital is extremely necessary to achieve monetary prosperity and financial goals. It is possible that if you are working on an investment strategy, it will probably include some form of stocks. The stock markets historical success makes this type of investment so common. The S&P 500 index recorded an average return of 9.7% between 1930 and 2013. Although, this includes years and exceptional years which are extremely tough. This high average return on investments in stocks provides a strong basis for buying them.
Stock market investment can look like a scary task. However, as soon as concepts are learned and the right strategies are implemented, the benefits are significant. While there are many vehicles for stock exposure such as mutual funds and ETFs which do not actually require investors to pick up their stocks from the market. However, it remains necessary to understand what stocks are and what they work to achieve when investing.
Straightforward meaning of equity stocks:
Stocks are equity investments that constitute a company’s ownership. If you buy the stock of a particular company, it includes certain rights.
Companies sell shares to collect substantial capital amounts. This capital is then used to fund various projects. This ultimately leads to the growth of business and generate a return for investors and revenue for the company. When a company wants to go public, it must also choose 1-4 separate letters for the distinctive identification called stock ticker symbols. Companies can sometimes even become creative when choosing their ticker symbols.
The stock price of a public company is simply a determination of the value of the company by the market. This value depends among other things, on its assets, current profits, and expected future profits. While raising capital, stock offerings is a great way for a business to grow quickly and expand rapidly. However, there are also disadvantages. In addition to the high charges paid for exchange listing, public firms have to disclose their financial reports as per the rules and regulations.
Categories of stocks viz. Common and Preferred:
Common stock offers you a part and voting rights of the company. With common stock, you aim for capital gains together with dividend collection. However, companies are not obligated to pay dividend to common shareholders. A dividend is a distribution of some amount from total revenue to shareholders or a kind of investment reward.
However, the preferred stock works somewhat differently. The preferential stock does not give you any voting rights. The preferred stock guarantees you more return as compared to common stock. For example, if a corporation pays a dividend, it must first pay its preferred shareholders. Dividends are first paid to preferred shareholders and then to common shareholders. Unless the company cannot pay the dividend in one year on preferred stock, it will proceed to pay it in the future years. They have a right to claim on firms assets in any uncertainty if the firm comes in a position of bankruptcy. Preferred share owners have more significance than common shareholders.
Common stocks are more riskier than preferred stocks. Portfolio must include a perfect blend of both common and preferential share.
Taxation on stocks:
After 1st September 2004, any buying and selling of securities will include the Security Transaction Tax (STT) applied to them. STT is payable on stock trading in India. Inventory income sold within 1 year from the date of acquisition is considered to be STCG. STCG is obliged to taxes and is taxed at 10%. If short-term capital losses are incurred, then it can be compensated for short-term gains in the same financial year. Benefit from stocks sold after 1 year comes in LTCG. Since 1st September 2004, long-term capital gains have been exempt from tax. Long term capital loss is considered to be a loss on inventories sold after one year from the date of purchase. Long term capital losses cannot be substituted with long term capital gains.
