- A stock quote includes several key pieces of information: the stock symbol, the price per share and the volume or amount of the particular stock being traded. The stock symbol is exclusive for each company, and is formed from a combination of letters and numbers. A stock quote will also give an indication of if the stock has gained or lost value, traditionally through a green upwards arrow for positive change or a red downwards arrow for lost value. Ticker tape refers to a number of these stock quotes grouped together in a successive line of data.
- The term ticker tape became slang for stock quotes in the 1860s when American Telegraph Company employee Edward A. Calahan invented the first stock quote telegraph printer. The machine was designed to send and receive stock quote information across long distances through telegraph messaging using Morse code, and made a ticking sound when it printed quote information on a long thin strip of paper. The distinctive sound inspired the term, and even modern brokers and financiers use the term though the telegraph machines have been replaced by computers. Before Calahan's invention, stock quote information had to be carried by word-of-mouth or written note, an ineffectual means of transportation over long distances for time sensitive stock information. The advent of the telegraph printer changed the nature of stock markets by making quotes accessible in almost real time around the world. Just 20 years after the printer was created, there were more than 1,000 installed in New York, and wouldn't be replaced by another form of technology until the introduction of the computer in the 1970s.
- Modern stock quotes are communicated through computers networks, though even they didn't become completely real time until 1996. Now, up to the minute quote information is available on a range of public websites like Yahoo! Finance, Forbes and Bloomberg. For investors who have online trading accounts, they usually also have access to real time quote information through their trading platforms.
- While ticker tape machines are no longer used, television programs that provide stock quote information offer viewers a digital ticker tape that typically runs along the top or bottom of the screen. The most famous modern ticker tape is located as an LCD display running along the sides of the One Times Square building in New York City.
- Old stock quotes in the form of ticker tape used to be recycled as confetti for parades during the 1940s through 1970s. A notable use of this ticker tape confetti was at the parade that celebrated the end of World War II.
