How to Read a Stock Ticker
Edward Calahan invented the stock ticker in 1863 and the New York Stock Exchange installed the first stock ticker in 1867. Messengers used to run price updates from the exchanges to brokers' offices prior to the ticker. You may spot stock tickers scrolling across financial websites or on digital displays inside and outside financial buildings. The main components of the stock ticker are the stock name, symbol, last trade and price-change information.
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Things You'll Need
- A business section from a newspaper containing stock quotes, or a business channel like CNBC
Instructions
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Identify the ticker for your stock exchange. Financial websites and television stations may have multiple scrolling tickers. Business television stations may have up to three tickers displayed at one time.
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2
Look for the company name, which is the first part of the ticker. If there is no company name, look it up using the stock symbol.
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3
Read the stock ticker symbol, which is usually one to four letters long. NYSE stock symbols consist of up to three letters, while NASDAQ stock symbols consist of four letters. Some stock symbols may contain extensions, such as ".A" for a Class A stock or ".B" for a Class B stock. Class A shareholders typically have more voting rights than Class B shareholders.
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Read the last-trade information, which may be of the format "volume @ price." For example, "14K @ 20" means the last trade was 14,000 shares at $20 each. The letters "K" and "M" mean 1,000 and 1 million, respectively.
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Examine the price-change information, which consists of an up or down arrow and an amount. The arrows indicate whether the price has moved up or down since the last trading session and the amount indicates by how much. Some stock tickers may use color codes to indicate up and down price movements.
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Tips & Warnings
Several financial websites, including the NASDAQ website, have free stock ticker tools that you can download and install on your desktop.
In pre-market and after-hours trading sessions, which are the brief trading sessions before the markets open and after they close, the volume information may be absent because only a few stocks trade during these periods. United States markets open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 4 p.m. Eastern. The price change in the after-hours trading session is from the closing price on that day.
References
Resources
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