Various classification of stocks:
The classification of stocks can be in a number of ways, depending on the circumstances it warrants. Group the stocks by the industries and sectors they are belong to is a most common way of stock classification.
The hierarchy of the stock market can be illustrated as follows:
Stocks by Industries:
- Financial
- Resources
- Energy
- Utilities
- Manufactures
Stocks by sectors:
- Consumer staples
- Energy
- Financial
- Healthcare
- industrial
- Information technology
- Materials
- Telecom
- Utilities
Stocks by capital assets:
- Canadian Large Cap - company with capital asset bigger than 500 million dollars
- Canadian Medium Cap
- Canadian Small Cap
- U.S. Large Cap: $5 billion and over
- U.S. Medium Cap: Between $1 billion and $5 billion
- U.S. Small Cap: Between $300 million and $1 billion
- U.S. Micro Cap: Below $300 million
Stocks by qualities:
- Blue chip stocks - stocks for will-established companies, usually have continuous dividend payments and low investment risk
- Growth stocks - stocks for companies have potential profitability and rapid growth, usually pay no dividends
- Penny stocks - stocks trading below $1, with high investment risk and speculative in nature