Learn to Read Stock Market Quotes Before Investing

If you are going to be an investor, you need to learn to read stock market quotes. The standard quote box has 10 columns. This article will look at each column so that you can learn to read them.

The first box is the 52 week high price. The second column is the 52 week low price. If these two numbers are relatively close, you have a stock that is not fluctuating much over time. If, however, you see a 25 percent or more difference, you know that something is going on with the company. Compare those two boxes with column 3 which is the current price. See whether the current price is more closely aligned with the high or low price.

The fourth column is the symbol for the company. This is generally a 3 or 4 letter term and each company's symbol is unique. For instance, Microsoft is MSFT and McDonalds is MCD.

The fifth column is the dividend amount while the sixth one is the dividend yield which is the amount an investor should earn on each share of stock.

Next up is the price to earnings ratio. This is determined by dividing the stock's price by the company's per-share earnings for the most recent 4 quarters.

The 8th box is the trading volume which is the amount of shares sold the day before in thousands.

Column 9 is the high/low for the day before so that you can see how much movement there was then.

Finally, number 10 is the close and net change. This lets you know where the stock ended up at the end of the day.

If you want to be a savvy investor, you need to learn to read stock market quotes.

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Read The Stock Market

Some great stock market investment strategies below, this article shows you how to read the market!

Effective Guide on How to Read the Stock Market

Savvy investors know that a considerable knowledge on how to read the stock market is highly necessary to succeed in stock market business. Though the data in the stock chart is not very accurate, how the investors utilize their technical ability to analyze the data found in the chart can make or break their investments.

The stock market chart comprises the data of prices and values of stocks that have been recorded over some period of time. As you may notice in the chart, you can find the prices at the vertical axis while time is can be found at the horizontal part of the chart.

The time sequence is arranged accordingly from the past up to the present. Investors will find the stock, option, commodity with its respective prices over some period of time. With those mentioned data, you may form your own technical analysis and calculated conclusion as basis of your investment decision.

Three popular stock market charts today are the following: the Line Chart, the Bar Chart and the Candlestick Chart.

Firstly, the Line Chart represents the most basic form among the three. It simply displays the prices and its respective time when the stock price was closed. Traders use this kind of chart for closing point references as well as when the latest data is not yet available.

Secondly, the Bar Chart indicates the initial prices traded during the bar. That is the highest or the lowest price traded as well as the last price traded. The timeframe found in the bar chart can be set to the earliest up to the recent trading activities in the stock market.

Finally, the Candlestick Chart shows you the prices from the highest to the lowest that have been recorded over a period of time. You can easily notice the movement and differences during the trading activities as represented by a color system.

You certainly would want to invest on some business that does not need you to come to the office regularly and yet earn as much as you deserve. Actually, this is what is happening in the Stock Market. But it is important to understand and learn How To Read The Stock Market so you know where your money is going.

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Guide to Investing in the Stock Market

Most of you with money to invest must decide either to "do it yourself" or hire someone else to decide where the money should go. This process of asset allocation always involves placing (usually) the majority of funds in stocks of companies worldwide. The "best" way to accomplish this is certainly subject to argument and controversy; however there is a significant body of academic and historical study that can help.

Here are a number of relatively well accepted facts:

1) Over long periods of time (10 years and more), stocks outperform bonds and cash.

2) Although there may be some actively managed mutual funds and stock pickers that can outperform the indexes that they invest in, it is doubtful that you or anyone else can identify them in advance. It is much more likely that owning a group of stocks in an index (index fund or equivalent) will outperform and cost less than paying someone to pick the "best ones."

3) Investment success is highly correlated with buying when others sell, and vice versa.

4) The above is very hard to do.

Given this information, what is the investor/advisor to do? The facts support so-called "passive" investing, in which funds are placed into low cost, diversified index funds and occasionally rebalanced. This sounds simple, but is misleading. Although investing in different market segments (American Stocks, Overseas stocks, Natural resources stocks, etc.) is probably done most efficiently with indexing-the investor must make the active choice of how much each asset class must be used at any given time.

For example, over the last two years-the Natural Resources and Commodities, and general Overseas market indexes have markedly outperformed the American stock market. How much of your portfolio should have been in the former categories two years ago? How about now? Of your American stock market investments-how much should be in a total market index instead of some other mixture of small vs. large companies?

The point I'm making is that the process of investing and asset allocation is never simple. One must carefully weigh historical valuations, investor risk tolerance, investor time horizons and have some "feel" for future trends to do a good job. This process is being performed by thousands, if not millions of full time professionals worldwide-and is not a process for amateurs. The financial press doesn't help with its myriad lists of "ten best stocks or funds to own now," as study after study has demonstrated that this type of trend following is doomed to failure.

Certainly, there are reasonable compromises that allow an investor to self invest and have probably decent long term returns. However, even these asset allocations require discipline, investigation and review. There is no short cut to investment success. Paying an expert is certainly reasonable, given that we all do so for help with medical, legal and accounting issues on a regular basis.

Summing up, investing in stock markets involves actively choosing an asset allocation, and then usually using a "passive" vehicle (like an index fund) to invest in each of the different asset classes chosen. Both the initial asset allocation and changes in the future require time, work, knowledge and continued learning.

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Learn Stock Market Trading

Learn Stock Market Trading - A Beginners Guide to Stock Market Trading

Many people want to get into the stock market, in hopes of gaining a more substantial income or a bigger retirement plan. For what ever the reasons are, most people don't have a clue of how to get started and that is why, if your reading this article, we are going to help you get started to learn stock market trading. The first thing you need to know is the stock market is not something you can jump into blindly and it's not something your going to learn over night. If you will follow some very basic information, you will be on your way to learning the stock market trade.

The first thing you need to learn is the lingo of investing topics. You have probably been to a few sites already and may have picked up on a few things. The best way to learn is by going to different sites and familiarizing yourself with the various topics and investment news they're telling you. Websites like "MarketWatch" are good places to start reading up on financial information. The Internet is the best place to learn stock market trading and the best thing of all, it's free. Unless you want to invest more in your financial education, many sites do offer classes for a fee. However, by searching financial websites and learning how to read the charts in the back of the financial section of the newspaper, you can keep your money where it belongs, with you.

The second thing to do is read, read and then read some more, it's the only way your going to learn stock market trading and be good at it. If you don't have the fortitude to do some serious reading, then go to Vegas and try your chances at the gaming tables because you're taking a gamble any other way. There are literally thousands of books about investing and personal finances and your local bookstore and library, (another free learning source by the way), are loaded with these "do-it-yourself" kinds of books. Magazines like "Fortune" and "Business Week" are two very good sources of learning information for starters. Take advantage of all the resources available to you literally at your fingertips.

Once you've found the books, websites, newspapers and magazines that you like the best, familiarize yourself with the information in them, then start looking for the news stories that have investing angles. Investing angles are stories that tell you more than the magazine and news stories tell you. They tell you why a company may or may not do something that could affect its stock price. Newspapers and magazines are good sources of up to date and breaking company news, so always keep your eyes open.

The third thing you need know when you start to learn the stock market is yourself. Take the time to get to know yourself and your relationship with money. No matter how old you are, or how much you've been through, it's a whole different ballgame when it comes to trading your money. Learn how comfortable you are at taking risks, if you don't have respect for your money you better get some quick or your going to find yourself broke before long. Do you know why you want to invest in stocks, bonds or options? Financial security is a great feeling and now you need to find out exactly what it means to You. Taking the time to learn the stock market trade with just these first few things for starters will take you a long and hopefully profitable way to investing in the stock market. Good Luck

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Stock Market Wokings - A Guide For Beginners!

How Does the Stock Market Work? A Guide For Beginners

If you are a beginner, you are probably wondering how does the stock market work? The answer is surprisingly simple: Companies go public and offer shares in their company to the public. The public buys the shares through what we know as the stock exchange. Investors can then use the stock exchange to buy and sell the stocks of the companies. Buying low and selling high can make people rich overnight. Of course you have to know what you are doing, and there are many factors involved. To gain a deeper understanding of how the stock market works, why don't we discuss a few of the most common terms.

Stock Prices: Stock prices are, to make it simple, the price that a specific stock sells for. This price is set by many market factors including the economy health, current trading trends, and technical and financial reports put out by the company (or independent third party).

Market Captialization: This is the actual value of the company or stock that is up for sale. Calculating the market capitalization of a stock is done by using the following formula -

Number of Outstanding Shares X Price of Stock = Market Capitalization of the Company

Once you have learned the basic premise of the stock exchange, you will want to learn how to buy and sell shares. To purchase stock you will need to create some type of investment account. Most times you can open up an account with a local stock broker. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, you can now make trades online on your own. It is as simple as setting up an account and funding it.

Hopefully now you have the answer to your question, how does the stock market work. The next step will be to learn how to successfully profit from trading. Good luck!

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