How do you read stock quotes?

Question

yea like the ones on marketwatch.com. its kind of confusing.....

Im kind of new to stocks so can some1 please help me out?

Answer 1

Go to this website.

Answer 2

Hi

Use the percentage as a rough guide to bid and ask price and see if the stock moves in your favor if not you have not done enough reading on the stock market to be so interested in on-line trading rather a Stock Reference Book in your quite room time will best help there.

Peter Matty

Answer 3

A stock quote is the buying and selling prices of market makers (market driven) or SETS (UK) which is order driven. If you have more than one MM in a particular stock you will have several competing quotes. The prices in the quote are called bid and ask/offer. You can sell on the bid and buy at the ask.(keeping it simple). If you amalgamate all the MMs prices as best bid and cheapest offer you get what is called the 'touch'. If you then take the middle of the bid and ask you get the 'middle'  or 'mid' price.

With SETS or order driven each person's (and maybe yours) order goes onto an electronic board.The best bid goes to the top (you want to buy) and the cheapest offer goes to the top (you want to sell). This board shows the size of the orders.

Now the MM only quote their price in a certain size (this is governed by the SE), so if a broker 'phones them up they may be quoted a different price if the size is bigger than that shown on the screen.

Hope this explains it, if not put any questions to http://www.shareworld.co.uk

Answer 4

In short there is always 2 sides of a trade.

1. Buyer

2. Seller

When you see a stock that is quoted $40.00 x $40.25, Last $40.15 up .50

This means:

$40.00 = The price that someone will pay you if you want to SELL (The "BID" Price).

$40.25 = The price that someone will SELL to you if you want to BUY (The "ASK" Price).

$40.15 = (in this example) means the "Last Price" that traded was $40.15. Someone bought or sold at $40.15.

The up .50 = a 50 cent movement in the stock. In this case the stock has increased in value from the last trade by 50 cents. Prices change every second to every few seconds depending on the demand, and volume (number of shares traded in a day).

Quotes will also show a (%) percentage change. This shows what percent the stock price has moved from the last trade.

Here is a good article and picture on how to read stock quotes.

Stocks Basics: How to Read A Stock Table/Quote

http://www.investopedia.com/university/s...