Complete Newb Need Assistance

[babyblue]

I have been doing some reading and I would like more information. I would sincerely be very appreciative if someone could explain a few things for me. I was doing some reading on the MSFT stock and saw some details on a website:

Average Volume (3 month)3: 60,396,500
Average Volume (10 day)3: 47,454,500
Shares Outstanding5: 8.91B
Float: 7.76B
% Held by Insiders1: 12.91%
% Held by Institutions1: 62.70%
Shares Short (as of 28-Jul-09)3: 67.87M
Short Ratio (as of 28-Jul-09)3: 0.9
Short % of Float (as of 28-Jul-09)3: 0.90%
Shares Short (prior month)3: 80.87M

I am struggling to understand the difference between outstanding shares and authorized shares (I would like to know what % for example is held by the company itself). From my understanding 7.76B shares are available publicly, but 8.91B are outstanding, however purchasing these 7.76B shares does not necessarily mean I would own 87% of the company right? And from this information, what does the term insider represent? An employee? I realize this will take some time for someone to answer and I apologize in advance for what might seem extremely obvious questions, I am just struggling a bit to understand.

[Fredledingue]

Insider means anyone officialy working at the company.
Usualy poeple in the knowing own most of the "insider shares".

I don't know the difference between outstanding and float neither. Thought I never bothered doing a search on the internet.

[StockTrader6080]

Baby Blue,

Nice fundamentals are not worth all that they used to be.
Now, fantastic/profitable companies have their stock trading for pennies on the dollar.

In my opinion, buy and hold is DEAD. Buy and hold caused people to lose 1/2 of their retirement savings as the mutual funds got cut in half last year.

I now take profits whenever I can. Once a profit goal (usually about 5%) is reached in a position, I hold on and wait for a .5% pullback in the price and then get out and lock in the profit.

My automated trader follow my rules to the letter and trade robotically whether I am at home or not.

Keith

Goodbye Mutual Funds. Hello Robotic Stock Traders.

[Stocktrading101]

1. Insider according to Investopedia is, "Examples of an insider include the directors and officers of a company. Stockholders who own more than 10% of equity in a company are also insiders."

2. The shares not available to the public are known as restricted shares. To find the total % simply take 100% minus the float %. Float is the total amount of shares available to the public. So if a company has a float of 90% then 10% are restricted shares.

Hope that helps!