Someone explain to me how you can make money by moving numbers around
Lets say I buy some shares of 4chan inc. :
What am I actually buying?
>>1084120
>investing in 4chan
>>1084120
For stocks:
You're buying a small portion of business. If it so happens that the business appreciates in value during your holding period you make money!
>>1084120
When you guy a share of a company you receive a portion of the profits. You're a micropartner, at least for dividend stocks. Non-dividend stocks are memes.
>>1084149
take this for example https://www.google.com/finance?q=bp&ei=0mS5VrHqAcK32Aaes73wCg
how do they judge the value of a business multiple times per hour?
>>1084120
4chan Inc. has to be approved through a process to be able to qualify to be listed on the stock market. Basically 4chan Inc gets a loan from a bank and then that loan, or optionally the entire company's current value, is broken off into shares(stocks).
These shares are sold publicly, so the more 4chan Inc grows the more the company is worth, therefore increasing the value of each share.
Shares are literal pieces of the company, so each share holds 1 vote. More shares equal more votes. Usually the primary owners holds 51% of the shares.