Stocks
What owning a share of a business means, where the price comes from, and how ordinary shares differ from preferred ones.
17 articles
A checklist before buying a shareTwelve questions worth answering in writing before the trade rather than hunting for answers after it.2 min
The share fell: a sequence of questions instead of panicA falling price is a fact, not information. What actually happened is established by checking, not by feeling.2 min
Quarter and year: why the comparison has to be like for likeSeasonality makes comparing adjacent quarters meaningless, and for many industries annual data is the only honest reference.
Short positions and leverage: why risk here works differentlyBorrowing securities or money from a broker changes not the scale of the risk but its nature: the loss stops being bounded.
Earnings per share: the metric easiest to improve without improving the businessProfit divided by the number of shares. Both halves of the fraction move, and the second moves by company decision.
Company news: what actually changes a valuationMost of the news flow does not move the value of a business. Telling the material from the noise is a skill that saves money and nerves alike.
Growth and value: two different reasons to buyOne buys an expected future, the other an underpriced present. Both work, but at different times.2 min
Price and value: how a market quote differs from what a business is worthPrice is what is paid today. Value is an estimate of future cash flows. They coincide rarely and briefly.
Corporate governance: why a minority shareholder should careThe quality of governance decides whether a shareholder receives a share of the business results or only a share of the accounts.
Sectors of the Russian market: what it is made ofOil and gas, metals, banks, retail, utilities, telecoms, IT — and a pronounced tilt towards commodities.
Splits and reverse splits: when only the share count changesDividing or combining shares does not change the value of a holding. The problem appears in historical data.
An initial offering: what the buyer is actually purchasingA company arrives on the exchange by selling shares. Understanding who is selling and why explains most of what follows.
Blue chips and market tiers: how groups of securities differA ranking by liquidity and visibility, not by business quality. The difference shows up in the spread and in behaviour during a panic.
Buybacks: the quieter alternative to a dividendThe company buys its own shares and the remaining holders' stakes grow. More efficient than a dividend on tax, worse on transparency.
A new share issue: why it hits existing ownersThe company gets money and every prior shareholder's stake shrinks. When that trade is worth making.
Market capitalisation and free float: two different sizes of the same companyThe value of every share and the value of the shares that actually trade differ by multiples.
Common and preferred shares: what actually differsOne carries a vote, the other priority in payouts. The price gap between them shows what the market thinks that vote is worth.