A Guide To Reading The Stock Ticker

By Jenny Taylor


A very familiar tool and probably a best friend among the players in the stock market is none other than the very useful stock ticker which can be found in any stock exchange. Now just to give beginners an idea of what this device does, basically, it just shows certain information about the stocks of a company. Without it, the players will not know which stocks they should invest, which stocks to buy, and which stocks to sell.

As stated above, these tickers can be found in all of the stock exchanges of every country so that investors may monitor their stocks. However, they can also be found in many other different places as well. They can also be found on the internet, on the television, in the newspaper, and in some places outdoors where they show it.

Now the first part that one will be looking at when he takes a glance at this device would be the company name. Always take note that the company name itself will not show up on the device but rather an abbreviated form of each company name will flash. In order to get an idea of which abbreviations represent the company, check the internet or the newspaper.

Somewhere near the company name would be the class of each of the stocks. Now the class of the stocks will determine which ones will have more and more advantageous voting rights with regard to the shares of each company. The class A stocks will have the more benefits as compared to the owners of class B stocks.

The most important part of the ticker would be none other than the price range of the stocks. Tickers will typically be showing the highs and lows all of the companies along with the starting prices of the day. After that, every time the stock market closes, the tickers will also be showing what the closing prices are.

Some people do not really know how to read the tickers because of different text colors and some symbols that are there. Now to help those who are starting out, the text in green color will be the stocks that have increased while the ones in red color are the ones that have decreased. Also, beside the price will be either an upward arrow or a downward arrow that symbolizes increase and decrease respectively.

Another thing that the ticker will flash would be the last number of shares that were sold for each company. Also, it would show the price at which these shares were sold. If for instance, a company sold fifteen thousand shares at twenty dollars, the device would show this information.

So if one would want to go into trading stocks, then he would need to make friends with the stock ticker. He must know how this device works in and out because he will be looking at it almost all the time. It is from this device that he will be getting valuable information.