You may be a young person who has just come into a big raise or exciting new salary or a more seasoned working veteran who has come to the conclusion that you have to make your money work for you. The latter, by the way, seems to be a growing category.

Elsewhere I’ve explained why it is that our current fiat currency means that money-based saving cannot be treated as a reliable store of your wealth . So, whatever your motivations are, and personal circumstances aside, a decision to invest is wise.

An important tool for all investors, especially those new to the process, is learning how to leverage market capitalization. Elsewhere (see the link at the bottom of this article) I explain its relevance to informed investing. Before though one can discuss that, terms have to be defined.

Market capitalization, as the term perhaps implies, refers to the total value which the market assigns the capital of a business, as expressed through the pricing of a company’s shares. To be still more concise: market capitalization captures market valuation of a business‘ equity.

Equity is derived from adding together the total value of the assets (things owned by the company) and the subtracting from that number the total value of the liabilities (things owed by the company). A resulting positive number is the equity.

For instance, a hypothetical company, call it XXX, has total assets (e.g., real estate, equipment, patents) of $10 million. Its total liabilities (e.g. bank debts, settlement in a court case, pending regulatory compliance costs) add up to $4 million. The equity of XXX is calculated by subtracting the $4 million liabilities from the $10 million assets. The equity of the company is thereby established as $6 million.

Now, we already have to backtrack a little. When we spoke of the assets and liabilities as having a value, we were referring to the value attributed to those items on the books of the company. Its accountants have added this all together on the basis of prices that have been stipulated in the relevant contracts: either giving XXX ownership or making claims upon its property. This is called the book value.

Savvy accountants exercise more sophisticated methods, amending their calculations for real world impacts, such as depreciation. Equipment, employed for decades, evaluated at book value as the price at which it was originally bought would be a grievous misrepresentation. This would be easily revealed if they attempted selling that equipment in today’s equipment market.

Again, though, this all still only reveals the book value. The market’s valuation is of course an entirely separate question. This doesn’t mean it is necessarily different from the book value, but neither can the two ever be assumed to be the same.

To distinguish between book and market value, let’s begin with a brief statement of what market capitalization is and how it is determined. Prices of course emerge from markets as a function of subjective value. The totality of everyone’s unique, personal preferences establishes the level of demand in relation to the existing supply.

Shares in a company are a commodity sold on the market like any other. Except for the original public offering, when the shares of a company are first issued, they are sold (not to or from the company, but) between individuals not otherwise connected to that company.

Consider an analogy. Sally sells Sam an apple. Preceding the sale Sally was the sole apple-holder. Subsequently, Sam has become the apple-holder. The information provided tells us nothing about whether Sally purchased the apple directly from an apple farmer or from someone else, likewise independent of the apple farmer – say Sandra. What remains unchanged, whatever was the case, is that, unless there was some specified arrangement (i.e., Sally is acting as the farmers sale’s agent), Sally had complete ownership of the apple. When she sells it to Sam, he likewise has complete ownership: he is the sole apple-holder. So neither Sally nor Sam has any debt owing to the apple farmer. The latter has already been compensated and surrendered complete ownership of the apple, whether to Sally, Sandra or some other intermediary along the line.

It is the same with company shares: they are bought and sold just like the apple. And just as many factors go into determining the price of the apple at any point in time, so too is the case with the shares of a company.

This brings us to determination of market capitalization. At one level, this is a simple calculation. A company’s shares have a price, at any point in time. Market capitalization is derived by simply adding up the total number of shares issued by the company then multiplying the number of total shares by the going price.

So, for instance, if XXX had issued one million shares and the market was valuing those shares at $6 each, then the market capitalization of XXX would be $6 million. As it happens, you may recall, that was also the book value of the company determined by its accountants.

Alas, lovely and symmetric as that example may be, in real life it rarely works out that way. Understanding, though, why it doesn’t and why and how the almost certain discrepancy between book and market value is important for prospective investors requires a more elaborate discussion of market capitalization.

All manner of investors have to keep up to date on the newest insights into market cap. To be sure you’re fully up to speed be sure to follow us at the Market Capitalization blog.