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Definition

<p style="text-align: justify;">Also sometimes called "equity" shares, these <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">shares</span> share in the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">profits</span> and <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">risks</span> of the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">company</span>. Unlike the fixed <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">dividend</span> paid to <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">preference shareholders</span>, the ordinary dividend is decided by the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">director</span>s, usually every six months once they have the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">financial statements</span> and it is dependent on the company's profits and cash resources. If the company is <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">liquidated</span>, the ordinary shareholders share out the proceeds after the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">creditors</span> and preferential shareholders have been paid out. For these reasons, ordinary share prices tend to be far more <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">volatile</span> than <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">preference shares</span>, giving the opportunity for <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">capital gain</span>s. Most of the shares quoted in the newspaper are ordinary shares. The <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">charts</span> of all the ordinary shares <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">listed</span> on the <span class="glossary" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted black; cursor: pointer;">JSE</span> can be viewed on your software going back to the day of their listing or back to 1985.</p>