ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Float (finance)

Okay, so imagine you have a super cool imaginary store called "Floaty Toys". At this store, you sell all sorts of fun things like rubber duckies, beach balls, and foam noodles.

Now, let's say you started your store with some of your own money, but you wanted to grow your business and buy even more toys to sell. But here's the thing - you didn't have enough money on your own to buy all the toys you needed.

So, what could you do? Well, you could ask other people to help you by giving you their money to buy the extra toys. In return, you promise to give them some of the profit you make from selling those toys.

When you ask people for their money to help your store, you're actually selling something called "shares". Shares are like little pieces of your store that people can buy and own a part of. In your case, you might give each share a value of $10, and someone can buy as many shares as they want.

Now, imagine that some people liked your store so much that they bought a bunch of shares from you. These people become the owners of your store along with you, and their money becomes an investment in your business. This is where the concept of "float" comes in.

Float is the amount of money that other people have put into your business by buying shares. It's kind of like a pool of money that you can use to buy more toys for your store and make it even more awesome.

But wait, there's more! Float is also a special term used in finance to describe the amount of shares available for public trading. This means that people can buy and sell these shares on something called the stock market.

When your store does really well and makes a lot of profit, the value of your shares might go up. This means that people who own these shares can sell them for more money than they paid for them. It's a bit like when you trade a toy with your friends, but instead of toys, you're trading pieces of your store.

And that's the basic idea of float in finance. It's like the money that other people have given you to help your store grow, and it's also a way for people to invest in your business and potentially make money.