SHARES AND STOCKS WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE ?

STOCKS & SHARES

REDUCED RISK INVESTING IN COMPETING INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY

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Coal and oil fossil fuels are on their way out, with the smart money heading for renewables, but what technology should you be investing in, with so many choices as to chemistry for energy storage. You could invest in lithium batteries, or you could invest in hydrogen compounds. But why not invest in both, to be sure you have a stake in both camps?

Investing in new technology can be a risky business. That is why we have Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds and a whole raft variations, such as Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs).

Not forgetting that the financial world speaks an entirely different language from the rest of us.

STOCKS & SHARES - SIMILAR TERMINOLOGY

Of the two, "stocks" is the more general, generic term. It is often used to describe a slice of ownership of one or more companies. In contrast, in common parlance, "shares" has a more specific meaning: It often refers to the ownership of a particular company.

WHAT IS A SHARE?

A share is when you own a part of a company. There are two main types of shares investors can own, private and public.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SHARES

The key difference between the two is that public shares are listed on a stock market where investors can go buy and sell shares without too much hassle. Private shares on the other hand don’t offer investors the same luxury. Since they aren’t traded on a stock market, finding a potential buyer or seller can be difficult, which can cause an issue when things go wrong. Take Woodford’s flagship fund, the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund that invests in private shares, for example. All trading has been suspended and investors are unable to sell their holdings.

Sometimes private companies transform into public companies. When this happens shares of the company change from private to public. A typical transformation involves an initial public offering (IPO) where the private company will list its shares on a stock market, allowing all types of investors to buy and sell its shares with relative ease.

BENEFIT OF OWNING SHARES

Investors who look to hold shares in their investment plans are doing so with one aim: to make a profit. This can be done in two ways, either via capital gains or income.

We talk about capital gains when you’re selling a share that has increased in value. It usually occurs when the company is successfully growing its revenue and earnings, or when there is speculation.

Another way to profit from owning shares is by using them to generate an income. Some companies will pay what is called a dividend to investors who own shares in the company, also known as shareholders.

WHAT IS STOCK?

As mentioned at the above, the terms “stock” and “share” are often used interchangeably or even combined to form the phrase “stocks and shares”. It can be argued that the term “stock” is a more American term for owning shares of a company. But there is a bigger difference than geography.

The key difference between the two terms lies in one subtle observation. The term stocks should be used when discussing ownership of companies in general, whilst the term shares is used to describe ownership of a specific company.

An investor explaining in general terms that they own an investment plan that holds a collection of stocks but does not reference any specific companies would be using the term “stocks” correctly.

If an investor wanted to discuss the share price performance of (fore example) Google after its quarterly results were announced as well as the impact on their investment plan, they’d be right to use the term “shares”

TRANSPORT FUTURE PROOFING - HEDGING YOUR BETS

To our way of thinking, and something that conventional battery stakeholders might want to consider, is that batteries can also be hybrids using ammonia, hydrogen and methanol - as examples.

The difference is that our Universal Batteries (UBs) are quickly detachable, rather than bolted in to the vehicle frame. Meaning, that you can swap from one technology to another in minutes, as new technology hits the market. UB's are thus future proofing for transport stakeholders, be they vehicle manufacturers or energy supply companies.

By way of example, ordinary exchange recharging by swapping battery packs is making headway in China and India, with examples in Europe and the US.

At the moment, this is a less popular as a way of (instantly) recharging EV's, despite obvious load levelling advantages, where generation is from solar and wind electricity. But, nobody has thought to include alternative chemistries, as a means of future proofing investments in technology that stands lesser chance of breaking into a mature market, without standardization.

The concept is well understood with Stock Market traders, but not anticipated by current stakeholders.

Universal Batteries is not in the business of research and development of the different chemistries, it is in the business of providing an infrastructure that companies developing the technology can join and advantage themselves of, just by scaling their systems to fit within standard format cartridges, such as to mesh with SmartNet service stations for handling and stock control purposes.

The Smart infrastructure and Universal energy cartridge designs and features, together with computer controls and geodata forms part of a portfolio of Intellectual Property, that investors can buy into and share, by way of easing the transition from fossil fuels to net zero, while hedging as to technological advances in the future.

This is not a prospectus.

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