
The smaller the bid-ask spread, the better. Quick tip: A bid-ask spread is the difference between how much someone will buy a security for (bid price) and how much someone else is willing to sell it for at any particular time (ask price). "Low -loat stocks typically have higher spreads and higher volatility than a comparable larger float stock." "A company's float is an important number for investors because it indicates how many shares are actually available to be bought and sold by the general investing public," says Tim Speiss, co-partner in charge of the Personal Wealth Advisors Practice with EisnerAmper LLP. It can also decrease if insiders or major shareholders buy up shares or increase if they sell shares. The supply of shares is low, which can make them difficult to acquire and discourage investment.Ī float may increase when a company issues new shares as a way to raise capital. This may be the result of having a large number of closely held or restricted shares or having few investors.

Low float: When a small percentage of shares are available for public trade, it's considered a low float. High floating stocks are preferred by institutional investors, such as mutual funds and insurance companies, because they can buy large numbers of shares without influencing the stock price much. It also means that it's easier for investors to buy and sell these stocks because there isn't a lot of demand. In the example above, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.'s float would be considered high because the vast majority of the total stock is open for trading. High float: A stock float is considered high if it has a large number of shares available for trading. They are usually categorized as high and low. Understanding how floating stocks workīecause floating stocks are the number of shares available to the public for trading, they're subject to fluctuations over time and are influenced by various conditions. In the case of Samsung, the float percentage would be 88.6%, which is considered high-float stock. as of August 2021, you'd see the following: If you looked at the market share statistics for Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. It is a quick and easy way to understand the proportion of shares that are actually available to be bought and sold by the general public. The float percentage is simply a company's stock float expressed as a percentage. Closely held shares may be owned by employees, major shareholders, or insiders, while restricted shares are ones that are not allowed to be traded for a certain period of time, such as during the lock-up period after an IPO. Calculating a company's floating stock is a simple matter of subtracting the number of closely held and restricted shares from the number of total outstanding shares.
