what is the difference between commodities and shares?

Answer 1

A share is a claim on a companies assets, and a commodity is a useable item traded. Just about anything can be a commodity, oil, beans, gold, hogs.

Answer 2

Shares are issued by a private or public limited company. It is a part of the ownership of the said company. It is a 100% risk investment because if the company runs in the losses and closes down a shareholder does not get any money back, usually. But on the flip side the shareholder gets to participate in the growth and resultant profits always. It is very difficult to exit from the shareholding position if the shares of private companies are invested into. Public limited+listed companies generally do not pose this problem. Listed companies shares are listed on the stock exchanges and you can liquidate your holdings of shares on the markets any time you want.C
Commodities refer to various goods and industrial products. It includes major metals and bullion, agro products like gaur-seed, potatoes and crude oil et al. You can trade and speculate on commodities exchanges in India into these commodities. It's a fairly new phenomenon compared to stock exchanges.
If you are thinking of investing into these (shares and commodities), please get all the information about the same. Else investing/speculating on tips and whims may prove to be very costly, financially.
Best luck.

Answer 3

Commodities are traded both outside the exchanges and inside the commodity exchanges. Shares can only be traded through a STOCK EXCHANGE.Commodity trading may open far earlier than the crop arrival, and can be traded as position in the exchange ,without actual exchange of the commodity. Stocks and shares can be traded only through physical handing over of the scrip or in a DEMAT form, and is a concurrent trade.

Answer 4

Commodities are the raw materials used to make manufactured goods. In modern times, the term has traditionally been limited to include agricultural goods like corn, soybeans & coffee, meats like live cattle and lean hogs, metals such as gold and silver, and energy such as oil and gas. But recent developments in the commodities futures markets have led to the inclusion of other instruments: bonds, stocks, currencies, interest rates and indices.

Commodities have been around for as long as there have been goods to barter, and can be traded as spot or futures instruments. The spot commodities market involves the trading of goods with direct swaps or cash -- basically the buying & selling of goods with immediate delivery of them. The commodities futures market involves the buying and selling of goods for delivery at a future date, a practice which began in the mid-1800's here in the U.S.

Shares are the units of the stock of a company, a mutual fund, or a trust, and are distributed for the purposes of raising capital by giving the purchasers joint ownership, a practice that originated in Europe in the 17th Century. While shares represent proportional ownership, they do not automatically confer rights of use, and come with certain limitations regarding control of venture management.

Shares entitle the holder of them to dividends, that is, a return on their initial investment either at liquidation or for as long as the investor retains them. Shares may be bought or sold either privately or publicly, depending on the securities status of the venture. The most commonly known share is the share of stock, usually of companies that are traded on a public exchange, like the New York Stock Exchange.

Answer 5

buying shares of a company means you become proprietor of that company to the limit you are holding the number of shares of the company. commodity buying is for making money, it may be a part of business.(both share and commodity can make losses)

Answer 6

A piece of paper is a stock, and the food grains in your pantry is commodities. That is the simplest non-techie answer.

If you need more go to www.traders.com and search more.

You should be asking, should I do stocks or should I do commodities? That will lead you somewhere better since it is a level 2 question that will lead to some wisdom of which one is better. But, please give your situation in detail and your skill set, since 'better' is too relative for such a broad topic!!!!!

KKP

Answer 7

Shares are of companies and commodities are items like gold, crude, wheat etc. i.e. anything comsumable or metals.