Similar to what you see on television news programs, a stock
ticker keeps you informed about the most current stock prices. It
is a unobtrusive tool, usually a bar of scrolling data found at the
bottom of the television screen that can be utilized while viewing
other information. Such a tool makes it easier for individuals to
stay informed while tending to other business. On a stock ticker,
you can usually find the following information: a ticker symbol, shares
traded information, price traded information, change direction data,
and the change amount data.
Most stock tickers only reveal information about companies with widely
held stocks or companies stocks that are extremely busy or have a
significant price change either up or down. This is because there are
so many companies that offer stock for trading: a ticker is a scrolling
form of information and it would be fruitless to have to wait for the
information to scroll through thousands of references referring to
stock trading data.
The ticker symbols are usually three or four letter abbreviations used
to identify a company. Each company participating in the stock
market has a set of letters assigned to represent it and no
abbreviations are duplicated. For example, if you have purchased
stock in Microsoft you want to be able to monitor the company's stock
value. The ticker symbol for Microsoft is MFST. The number of
letters in a ticker symbol signifies what exchange the company trades
on. For instance, tickers symbols containing two letters trade on
the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), those with three letters trade on
the NYSE or the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and tickers with four
and five letter combinations trade on NASDAQ. Bear in mind, that mutual
bonds are denoted with the letter X.
Immediately following the ticker symbol, you can find the shares
traded, which is usually represented by a letter: K=1000, M= 1,000,000,
B= 1, 000, 000, 000, and indicates the volume of trade being quoted.
After this, price traded information is revealed which informs the
viewer the price per share for the trade.
The ticker then reveals the change of direction data, which tells you
whether or not the trading price was higher or lower than the previous
day's closing price, and the change amount: the difference between the
immediate price per share and the prior day's closing price.
On some scrolling tickers, several colors are used to indicate what
various stocks are trading at: whether it is higher, lower, or
unchanged from the previous days' closing. For example, the color
red (often the color considered the symbol of danger or warning)
indicates that stock is trading at a lower price per share in the
previous days ' closing price, while the color green signifies the
stock is trading at a higher price than the previous days ' closing
price. Likewise, the colors white or blue indicate that the stock
price has remained the same trading price as it was previously.
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