Let's talk about what to do with all that money that you've worked so hard on saving up. In this section titled Investing 101, I'll go over different terms and ideas that every investor should know.* Hopefully the information provided will help give you a general idea of how things work and build a foundation for you to go and further educate yourself. Welcome to class. Today's topic? Reading stock quotes.
Hop on to the computer and look up a quote on one of your favourite companies. You'll most likely see a graph tracking the market value of the stock and a whole slew of numbers. This can be overwhelming so let's go through some of them to get a better understanding of what's going on.
You'll be staring at something like this:
Stock Chart:
The graph shows the price of the stock throughout the day. The red line indicates the previous close price. The graph can also show up to 10 years worth of information about the price of the stock.
Last Price:
The last price is the last price that the stock was traded at.
Last Trade:
Show the last time the stock was traded.
Tick:
The tick shows the direction that the stock is trading based off the last two trades. For example, the last two trades of Husky were at the same price - which is why the tick is "N/A". However if the last price that the stock traded for was higher than the previous trade, then the tick would indicate that the stock is moving up.
Volume:
The volume is the number of shares that have been traded in the current trading day. The larger the volume is, the more liquid the stock.
Change:
This is the dollar amount difference between the current price and the price at the previous close.
% Change :
This is the percentage difference between the current price and the price at the previous close. This give a better indication to how much the stock price has moved because it is relative to the stock price as opposed to the absolute dollar value change.
Open:
The open price is the price that the stock starts the day at. This may be different than the previous close due to pre-market trading.
Previous Close:
The closing price at the end of the previous trading session.
Day High:
The highest price of the stock has traded for in the current trading session.
Day Low:
The lowest price of the stock has traded for in the current trading session.
Next time we'll look at the rest of the quote.
-the Paperboy
*I am by no means an expert and have no background whatsoever on the subjects other than what I learn on my own, so do not take the articles in this series as advice. Please remember to do your own research before making any financial decisions.
** Long on Husky as of writing
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