Not quite. A (common) stock is nothing more than a certificate of ownership of part of a company. In theory, the value of that capital should increase over time, plus you hopefully get dividends regularly. Again - it's ownership, so that means that you could, in principle, hold that instrument 'forever' (just like you would, say, a piece of land), never planning to sell it back, and therefore not giving a single f*ck about its current or future price.