Possible to be stuck with shares in a company?

[mray]

Hi,

I'm very new to the stock market and how it all works.

My question is:

When you buy a stock, can you sell it at any time? or does there have to be a buyer?

For stocks that are said to be very illiquid - what if you buy the stock and then there is simply never any buyers when you want to sell?

Or, when they say illiquid do they just refer to being able to buy the stock?


I guess my question is, when you sell a stock, where does the money come from? Does there have to be someone else buying it or does the money come from the company you invested in?

Sorry if my question is not clear.

 

[adamscj]

Hi,

I'm very new to the stock market and how it all works.

My question is:

When you buy a stock, can you sell it at any time? or does there have to be a buyer?

For stocks that are said to be very illiquid - what if you buy the stock and then there is simply never any buyers when you want to sell?

Or, when they say illiquid do they just refer to being able to buy the stock?


I guess my question is, when you sell a stock, where does the money come from? Does there have to be someone else buying it or does the money come from the company you invested in?

Sorry if my question is not clear.

At some level, yes - if you sell a share in a company listed on an exchange (e.g. a FTSE 100 company listed on the London Stock Exchange) then there has to be a buyer on the other side. Generally this isn't a problem - for most shares and in most market conditions there will always be a buyer (not necessarily at a price you want to sell at) who will take your shares. The only exceptions are for shares in obscure companies, ones right on the verge of collapsing or in times of severe market turmoil.

The illiquid refers to the general number of shares chaging hands (for each buyer there is a seller).