What is a stock?
A stock — or share — is a small ownership share of a company. Own one Novo Nordisk share and you own a tiny piece of Novo, with a right to your share of the value and the profit. The price is what other people will pay for that slice right now.
The coloured slice is your share. It is small — but it is yours.
What you actually buy
A company is divided into millions of small pieces. Each piece is a share. Buy one and you are a part-owner — on a very small scale. You get a right to your share of the profit (dividend), a vote at the annual general meeting, and you own your slice of whatever the company is worth.
You are not lending the company money, and you cannot ask for it back. If you want your money out, you sell the share to someone else — at whatever price the market offers that day.
Why the price moves
The price is not the company's "true" value. It is what buyers and sellers can agree on right now. A good earnings report brings more buyers and the price rises. Bad news brings more sellers and it falls. Some days it moves without anything happening in the company — that is the mood of the market shifting.
That is why you can lose money on a share in a healthy company if you bought too dear — and make money on a mediocre company if you bought cheaply.
One stock or many?
Buy a single stock and your money hangs on one company. If that goes wrong, it goes wrong for you. Buy many different ones — or an ETF that owns hundreds — and you are far less exposed. That is called diversification, and it is the first thing most experienced investors mention.
The typical beginner's mistake
Buying a stock because the price has fallen a lot — "it must bounce back soon". It does not have to. A share has no memory of what it used to cost. Look at the company, not just the chart.
How you see it in Kiggo
Type the company name into Kiggo — no ticker codes needed. Kiggo shows the price, what kind of company it is (e.g. "Bank stock" or "Pharma stock"), and three verdicts for the short, medium and long term — with an explanation of why they say what they say.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Can I lose more than I invested?
No. Buy a share for 1,000 and the most you can lose is 1,000 — in the worst case, where the company goes bankrupt. You can never end up owing money on an ordinary share.
How many stocks should I own?
There is no single right number, but many beginners start with one ETF that owns hundreds of companies and only buy individual stocks later. That way the diversification is there from the first euro.
What is the difference between a stock and a bond?
With a stock you own part of the company. With a bond you lend the company (or the state) money and receive interest. Stocks swing more, but have historically returned more over long periods.
Kiggo explains — Kiggo does not advise. We never tell you what to buy or sell, and key figures can only be compared between companies in the same industry. The decision is yours. Last updated 2026-09-07.
Written by Claus Frisch, founder of Kiggo. Not an adviser, not a bank — Kiggo explains, you decide.
