The terms “stocks” and “shares” are often used interchangeably. However, the two terms can also have more specific meanings that are useful to understand. A share refers to a unit of ownership in a specific company. A company’s stock is divided into shares. When discussing investing, people will usually use the term “stocks” to refer to companies more generally, and “shares” when referring to a specific company. For example: “Tech stocks are rallying today” versus “I think Apple will do very well in Q4. I just bought 50 shares”.