Stocks are simply a piece of ownership in a company.  While usually not a very big chunk of ownership, you can own a piece of any publicly traded company for a small price.

Companies generally start out as private companies, mom and pop if you will, but on a larger scale of course.  At this phase, most investors (Average Joe’s) cannot buy into the company via a stock.  When the mom and pop company starts to grow and needs more capital (Cash!) to increase production or open more stores, they offer an IPO.  An IPO is an “Initial Public Offering.”  This is the first time a stock will be available for the company in question.

So why buy a stock?  Stocks, in general, are the fastest way to grow your investment.  In simple terms, if the company you own the stock in is doing well, the price of the stock goes up.  Of course there are many factors that go into the price being driven up or down.  The current state of the economy, expected future growth or shrinkage, industry trends, etc.  Over the stock market’s history, the average return is 11%.  Keep in mind that is over a very long period of time.  The last year or so has shown us that this is not constant and you should be prepared at any time for extreme losses if you are in higher risk stocks/mutual funds.