After allowing for household bills ,you have some spare cash ( capital) and decide to buy an apple tree ( investment ) ,which in three years begins to bear fruit ( earnings; dividend or interest when picked ). A productive apple tree is an asset ,which grows annually ( capital growth ) yielding more and more apples ( earnings growth ) for you to eat ( dividend ) or sell ( turnover; income ).

After a while ,as a skilled gardener you graft onto the tree pears and various varieties of apples ( diversification ).

Underwriters take on a liability for a fee. When a company floats ,offering shares to investors ,any that are not sold , if the offer is undersubscribed , are contractually bought by the underwriter.Insurance underwriters are like bookmakers, who take the premium ( stake ) and pay out ( win return ) if a claim (win ) occurs.

Common stock is the US equivalent of ordinary shares in the UK i.e the default stock when a price enquiry is made unspecified. As one share is equal to any share within a company they have equity, so a 10% holding will get 10 times a 1 % holding.

I'm trying to understand what words like capital, equity, assets, securities and then there's mixtures of those words (like capital equity) mean. Also what is common stock? Is it different from stocks? Everything that I found online was very confusing. Thanks!