at this pace you'll own more shares than there are in the entire world by the time you're 64

Technically speaking you're not the shareholder, but the fund is. You cannot get voting rights from owning ETFs.

Typically, no. You don't get to vote for an index or mutual fund.

I've found stocks to be a fun thing to kind of collect. That company seems fun and stocks are $34. Eh, I'll buy one. And then just forget I have it. I don't do day trading or anything like that. So it's low stress and unless you are trying to buy a lot, relatively cheap. Occasionally you'll even get 24 cents back!

Lol, Imma call the CEO of index funds.

If you hold a share, you hold a share. makes you a share holder imho.

also: congrats on being born from me, too!

You're one of many minor shareholders. They give you in theory some say in the company, with one vote per share, but in practice you're ignored. Then you have the major shareholders, owning millions in shares, and having some to big influence in the company. These are the people they invite to shareholder meetings. And then there is the special class of shareholders, think of Musk and Zuckerberg, that own now billions in shares that give them 10 votes per share for example so nobody can outvote them.

Yes, a shareholder is one who owns stocks. But you can say there's another tier, if you own say 10% of a company's stock you may actually get to influence how the company runs. That is called the board of directors. They decide what path the company goes down, the CEO, etc. (Technically it's the shareholders that decide, but your 1 millionth voting power isn't doing anything when your local billionaire has a billion dollars more stock than you.)

Yes, a shareholder is someone who owns part of the company, which is what stocks/shares are.

There are different stock types, though. Common stock is what everyone thinks of when they hear stocks/shared. You own a portion of the company and can vote on stuff, and maybe get some dividends.

Then there are preferred stocks which are basically a hybrid stock/bond with a fixed regular dividend. They also get first claim to the company assets if it goes under, but they usually don't have voting rights. Then there are subtypes of preferred stocks.

Yes, you're a shareholder. It just means you own shares in the company.

Sounds like something a shareholder would say.

And have proven it so repeatedly