As far as I understood every person who owns a stock can join the general meeting and vote about the company. How is that if somebody bought a single stock online? Apple has 15 billion shares. Even if every shareholder owned 1 million shares that would still be 15k people. How are they going to count who owns what?
edit: my question is not how they can house 15k people. i am asking how they can count the votes and make sure you bought a vote. if you bought some shares on a random trading site like [capital.com](http://capital.com) or robinhood how are you going to prove that you actually bought it? is there a vote button on robinhood?
In: Economics
Lots of people not answering your question.
The most important company you have never heard of is the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The are basically a law firm that holds stock in custody for everyone. Literally they keep a list of every share and who owns it. When you buy a stock on the stock exchange, you are actually sending the DTCC instructions to update their ownership ledger. They facilitate quadrillions of dollars worth of trades every year. Not billions, not trillions, but quadrillions. It’s mind-boggling.
It’s vital for companies to keep up-to-date lists of everyone who owns their stock. Remeber that most stocks send out dividends. If they are going to send payment of $.10 per share to every shareholder across every stock brokerage in the country, they have have to have extremely accurate information on a. who owns the stock, b. how much they own, c. when they bough it, and d. what brokerage holds their account. Compared to issuing dividends, collecting shareholder votes is pretty easy.
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