What’s the difference between stocks and shares?
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Stock represents the ownership of a publicly traded company. Think of the stock itself as a pizza that the company has already cut up into individual slices (shares) for people to buy. If the pizza was cut into 8 slices, you can buy one, or you can buy more, but the transaction will be in terms of slices.*
You might say “I own stock in company X” in the same way you’d say “I am having pizza for dinner”, even though you can only actually lay claim to your individual slice/share.
*You actually *can* buy fractional shares — one piece of pepperoni — via investment vehicles like mutual funds or ETFs, but that’s a separate discussion!
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