There are two types of classes of shares and these are Class A and Class B.

The two classes of shares determine what kind of voting rights do you have and that in turn determines what kind how much your opinion carries weight in the annual general meeting of the board.

Common stock is what we will discuss first and this stock of share is what is issued by the company in general and these shareholders who have the common stock then elect a board of directors which will make sure that the company has a good corporate policy. In terms of risk carrying the common stock carries maximum risk because once everyone is paid off only then can you as a common shareholder will be paid in the event of the liquidation of the company.

Agreed that these shares carry higher risk but the fact is that these shares also have the most appreciation and that is why general shareholder will only buy common stock.

Now if we compare common stock with the preferred stock the difference lies in the fact that the preferred share holders have claim on the earnings and assets before the common share holders and in the event of the bankruptcy preferred stock holders will be paid off after the creditors have been paid. The preferred share holders generally do not have any voting rights but yes they do have a certain amount of fixed dividend that is paid to them.

In the stock market you will keep hearing the terms Class A shares and Class B shares. Class A shares in a lot of cases have ten or five votes per share while on the other hand the Class B shares will have only vote per share. The reason for this classification is that companies will try to give more voting power to some kind of shares and certain type of investors.

Make sure to read the companies charter,bylaws and prospectus before investing as a careful investor is likely to make more money than a casual investor.