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Equities offer ownership. Unlike with debt, this means you as the investor are not reliant on a third party for capital payments –although there is an aspect of this in the form of a dividend distribution. The difference here is that equity owners have rights to the capital, and in most cases, they also have voting rights which they can exercise in forcing a dividend payout. If the company in question goes bankrupt, ownership attributes certain rights to the holder which may also minimize loss, even though the normal shareholder does not have first rights to payment.

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