Learning How To Read The Stock Market
Playing the stock market is one of the most popular forms of investing money.
It is also one of the most popular legal forms of gambling practiced by those who don't use proper analysis to pick their stocks.
If you want to buy, sell and trade stocks, you need to be able to read all of the information available about the market.
Here is a quick overview to learn what all the numbers and symbols mean on a ticker.
There is always a symbol that designates what company the information is about.
These symbols are letters and range from one letter on up.
Most symbols are three or four letters.
Some are easy to figure out while others have to be looked up.
For example, AEP is the symbol for American Electric Power that is also called AEP.
As you buy stocks, you will quickly learn the symbols associated with the stocks you own.
Many financial sites even let you list which ones you want them to show so you can see your entire portfolio at a glance.
If you set this up it will save you a lot of time and energy digging around for prices.
Next you will see numbers associated with the asking price for a stock and the bid price for the stock.
There is a spread between these two numbers.
Some tickers don't include these two prices and only track the amount the last sale was made at.
Following this is an indicator, usually an arrow, showing if the price is going up or down.
You can also often see the percentage that the last trade changed from the one before it.
The best place to find tickers is online at one of the big financial networks or Internet portal sites like Yahoo.
Find the financial section and then look for stock quotes.
By studying them for a while you can quickly learn where everything is located and how to quickly read the information you need.
Unless you are a day trader, making many trades within a day, there is no need to constantly monitor your stocks.
It is easy to get addicted to following a ticker and waste a great deal of time.
Remember that you never actually make and money or lose any money until you sell a stock.
So unless you are ready to sell, don't get caught up in the normal daily bouncing up and down of a stock.
It is also one of the most popular legal forms of gambling practiced by those who don't use proper analysis to pick their stocks.
If you want to buy, sell and trade stocks, you need to be able to read all of the information available about the market.
Here is a quick overview to learn what all the numbers and symbols mean on a ticker.
There is always a symbol that designates what company the information is about.
These symbols are letters and range from one letter on up.
Most symbols are three or four letters.
Some are easy to figure out while others have to be looked up.
For example, AEP is the symbol for American Electric Power that is also called AEP.
As you buy stocks, you will quickly learn the symbols associated with the stocks you own.
Many financial sites even let you list which ones you want them to show so you can see your entire portfolio at a glance.
If you set this up it will save you a lot of time and energy digging around for prices.
Next you will see numbers associated with the asking price for a stock and the bid price for the stock.
There is a spread between these two numbers.
Some tickers don't include these two prices and only track the amount the last sale was made at.
Following this is an indicator, usually an arrow, showing if the price is going up or down.
You can also often see the percentage that the last trade changed from the one before it.
The best place to find tickers is online at one of the big financial networks or Internet portal sites like Yahoo.
Find the financial section and then look for stock quotes.
By studying them for a while you can quickly learn where everything is located and how to quickly read the information you need.
Unless you are a day trader, making many trades within a day, there is no need to constantly monitor your stocks.
It is easy to get addicted to following a ticker and waste a great deal of time.
Remember that you never actually make and money or lose any money until you sell a stock.
So unless you are ready to sell, don't get caught up in the normal daily bouncing up and down of a stock.
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