It is a security that represents a percentage of the private capital in a company, and the value of the shares may increase or decrease based on its spread in the financial market. Shares are defined as the amount of money that forms part of the ownership of a company, and it can be offered for purchase by the public.

Another definition of shares is the amount of the capital of an existing or joint stock company. These shares are used within financial transactions that depend on their trading between a group of individuals. Shares are characterized by a set of characteristics, the most important of which are:
- Equal value: It is the achievement of integration between all the values ​​of the shares affiliated with the company, which together constitute the full value of its capital, and upper and lower limits have been set for the nominal value of the shares based on commercial laws.

As for the goal resulting from the equal value of shares, it is the ease of work of companies, the distribution of profits, and the regulation of share prices in the stock market, so shares cannot be issued without determining their value.
- Balance the responsibility of the partners: it is to achieve justice in the distribution of responsibility between the shareholders and the participants in the company based on the value of one share for each of them.

- Indivisibility of shares: It is the inability to diversify the owners of one share even if the ownership of the shares is transferred to other people as a result of a will or inheritance, this division of the value of shares is not acceptable to companies, so the heirs must choose one person to represent the value of their shares in the company, The possibility of stock splitting makes it easy to obtain rights, and the application of mutual duties between companies and shareholders.

- The possibility of shares trading: It is one of the special characteristics and advantages of shares. It is rare for the share to remain with its first owner for a long period of time. Rather, shares are traded between more than one shareholder during the buying and selling operations in the financial markets.
- Cash stocks: they are the main stocks that constitute a cash value from the capital of companies, and they are also accepted for trading in the financial market, because money is the unit of account and measurement of the values ​​of corporate capital.

- Shares in kind: they are the shares offered by some shareholders to companies, but on condition that their value is equal to the cash value of the shares, and that it is equal to the share value or its multiples, which helps to facilitate its calculation.
- Nominal shares: They are the shares on which the name of their owner is registered, and a serial number for each share is included in the company's books of accounts, and special changes in their ownership are permanently recorded.

Bearer shares: These are shares for which it is not necessary to mention the name of their owner, but it is sufficient to have evidence of their ownership in order to contribute to proving their returns to their owner.
- Promissory shares: They are shares that depend on the name of their subscriber, and are traded based on the presence of a sign from their owner, signed by him, indicating that he has relinquished his ownership, and this sign is called an endorsement, and there is no need to record this process in the company’s records.

- Ordinary shares: are the shares issued with equal values ​​together, and are considered the origin of the shares issued by joint stock companies.
- Preferred shares: They are a distinct type of shares that provide their owner with a set of advantages that distinguish them from ordinary shares, including the guarantee of the original value of the share in the event of its loss, and the priority for the owners of these shares to obtain their share of the dividend, or upon liquidation of the company.

- Capital shares: They are the shares that remain in existence while the company continues, and the shareholders do not obtain their value unless the company is liquidated, and this is the original nature of the shares of joint stock companies.
- Enjoyment shares: They are the shares issued by companies with the aim of overcoming financial problems, or to obtain additional financial financing, and it is possible to recover their value during the period of the company’s existence, with the owner’s association on the condition that his connection with the company is not severed.