Float

The number of shares in a company that are owned by many different shareholders and can be traded freely in the capital market.

The float refers to shares that are not owned by major shareholders, and can therefore be acquired and traded by the general public. As a rule, the larger the float, the easier it is for investors to buy and sell the stock.

Since June 2002, the stocks in Deutsche Börse's share indices have been weighted according to trading volume and market capitalisation based on the number of shares in free float.