Economy and Business Terms - Charlie, your teacher of English
share of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders are the owners of a limited company.
They buy shares which represent part ownership of a company. Stockholders are granted special
privileges depending on the class of stock. These rights may include:
The right to sell their shares.
The right to vote on the directors nominated by the board.
The right to nominate directors (although this is very difficult in practice because of minority
protections) and propose shareholder resolutions.
The right to dividends if they are declared.
The right to purchase new shares issued by the company.
The right to what assets remain after a liquidation.
Stockholders or shareholders are considered by some to be a subset of stakeholders, which may
include anyone who has a direct or indirect interest in the business entity. For example, employees,
suppliers, customers, the community, etc., are typically considered stakeholders because they
contribute value and/or are impacted by the corporation.
Shareholders in the primary market who buy IPOs provide capital to corporations; however, the vast
majority of shareholders are in the secondary market and provide no capital directly to the
corporation./////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Short Selling: Short selling is the sale of a security that is not owned by the seller, or that the seller
has borrowed. Short selling is motivated by the belief that a security's price will decline, enabling it
to be bought back at a lower price to make a profit. Short selling may be prompted by speculation,
or by the desire to hedge the downside risk of a long position in the same security or a related one.
Since the risk of loss on a short sale is theoretically infinite, short selling should only be used by
experienced traders who are familiar with its risks.
Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a quality-control program developed in 1986 by Motorola that emphasizes
cycle-time improvement and the reduction of manufacturing defects to a level of no more than 3.4
per million. As of 2016, Six Sigma has evolved into a more general business-management
philosophy focused on meeting customer requirements, improving customer retention, and
improving and sustaining business products and services. Six Sigma is applicable to all industries,
and a number of vendors, including Motorola itself, offer Six Sigma training; special certifications
include yellow belt, green belt and black belt.
Stamp duty (equities): When you buy a share, you have to pay stamp duty. Purchases of UK
equities are subject to a levy of 0.5%.
You pay a higher rate of 1.5% when you use certain special arrangements to transfer shares to be
held by a third party. This is a government tax on share transactions.
In the United Kingdom, stamp duty is a form of tax charged on instruments (that is, written
documents), and historically required a physical stamp to be attached to or impressed upon the
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