Share float

A company's float is the portion of its shares outstanding that is available for the public to buy and sell. It excludes shares held by insiders, the company's founders, or other strategic holders who are not actively trading, since those shares rarely change hands even though they technically exist.

Float is always equal to or smaller than total shares outstanding. A company can have a large share count on paper while having a much smaller float, if a founder, a family, or the company itself controls a large stake that stays off the market.

Float matters most for liquidity. A stock with a small float can swing sharply on relatively little buying or selling interest, since there are fewer shares circulating to absorb the order flow, and it is more prone to a short squeeze if short sellers need to buy back borrowed shares quickly. A stock with a large float tends to trade more smoothly, with price moves that better reflect broad investor sentiment rather than a handful of large orders.

Float is also the input most major index providers use for weighting, rather than total shares outstanding, since an index is meant to reflect what investors can buy.