Investing in the stock market is a great way to make your money work for you. You will want to watch the stocks you currently own and stocks you are thinking of investing in so you know when it is the best time to buy and sell, therefore maximizing your investment. The easiest way to get information about the stock market is to check the stock quotes. There are a number of places you can get stock quotes so you can keep track of the stocks you are watching.
1. KNOW WHAT STOCKS YOU'RE LOOKING AT
Before you start pulling up stock quotes on your computer or in the newspaper you will want to know what you're looking for and what you're looking at once you have the stock quote sitting in front of you.
Have the company name and ticker symbol for the stocks you're searching for. Stocks are listed by the company name or the ticker symbol. The company name is listed in the third column of the stock quotes under the heading Stock. When checking a site like Yahoo Finance the ticker symbol is the alphabetical symbol that a stock is known by. When you search for a stock online or while watching television you will need to know the ticker symbol for the stock you're searching for. On a stock quote the ticker symbol is the fourth column under the heading Ticker. You can find the ticker symbols for stocks at marketwatch.com.
See if the stock pays dividends. Column five on the stock quote shows if the company pays annual dividends on the shares. If the space is blank the company doesn't pay dividends. Column six tells the dividend yield, or the percentage of return on the dividend the company paid out.
Column seven shows the Price/Earnings Ratio. The Price/Earnings ratio is how well the current stock price fares against the previous four quarters.
Learn the day's high and low. Column eight shows the previous day's high, or the highest price the stock traded at for the day. Column nine lists the previous days low.
Column eleven shows what the stock closed at for the previous day. The close is the last recorded traded value of the stock. If the stock changed more than 5 percent the stock will be listed in bold print.
Net change. Column twelve shows the percent change in the stock's closing price from the previous day.
2. MAKE SURE THE STOCK INFORMATION IS UP TO DATE
When it comes to stock quotes old news is definitely not good news. The stock quotes won't do you any good if they were from a week ago. If you check the stock quotes online or through television news programs you can pretty much count on the information being up to date.
Important: If you are checking your stock quotes in the newspaper remember that the listed quotes are from the close of the previous day and will not tell you where the stock price is sitting at that moment.
3. CHECK THE NEWSPAPER FOR STOCK QUOTES
The business section of your local newspaper or a national paper, like the "Wall Street Journal" will have a listing of the stock quotes. The stock quotes that are listed are for the market's close the previous day and depending on the newspaper may only include the stocks that changed the most. If you check the newspaper early in the morning you will have an accurate read from the close of the previous day. Once the market opens you may want to find other sources to check your stock quotes so you have the most up to date information.
4. WATCH THE NEWS PROGRAMS FOR UP-TO-DATE STOCK QUOTES
If you are watching one of the national news stations, especially the ones found on cable or satellite television you should have no trouble finding the current stock quotes. There are pros and cons to getting your stock quotes through the news, however.
ProsUp-to-the-minute price changes. Any news program that shows the current stock prices will have someone keeping track of the changes in stock prices so they can report them immediately. Some news programs continuously scroll stock prices across the bottom of the screen during a broadcast.
Financial analysts and advisors. Most reputable news programs have a financial analyst or advisor that helps to educate and inform the viewers about what is going on in the marketplace.
ConsWaiting to see your stock quote. The downfall of getting your stock quotes from the news is you will have to wait for the ticker symbol to scroll across the screen. The stocks are listed alphabetically so if you miss your stock, you will have to wait until it scrolls across the screen again.
5. GET YOUR STOCK QUOTES ONLINE
If you have access to the Internet, you have easy access to current stock prices. There are a ton of websites that offer stock monitoring services. To be safe you will want to choose a couple sites that you like and stick with them. Make sure the websites you choose are reliable and up-to-date.
Use the official websites of the exchanges to get guaranteed accurate information. Whether your stocks are listed in the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ or locally, the best way to get stock quotes is through their website. You can search online or call the stock exchange to get the Web address for the particular site. The official stock exchange websites will have information before anyone else when stock prices rise and fall.
Use your favorite search engine to look up stock quotes. Most search engines offer stock quotes on their home page. If you know the ticker symbol you can type it into the stock quote search and the search engine will give you the current stock price and all additional information found on stock quotes.
Yahoo stock quotes: http://finance.yahoo.com
Google stock quoteshttp://finance.google.com/finance
Go to a webpage dedicated to giving you stock quotes. There are websites that specialize in keeping up-to-the-minute information on the prices of stocks. Use a search engine and type in stock quotes to pull up pages of websites that will suit your needs.
Get your stock quotes sent directly to your cell phone or PDA. There are services available that will send quotes for the stocks you request to your cell phone so you are always up to date on where your money is at. Depending on the service there is usually a limit on the number of quotes that can be sent to your mobile device.
Quotebeep (up to 20 free quotes)
QuotesbySMS (25 cents per text message)
Even if the service is free you will still be billed your standard text messaging fee to send for and receive the stock quotes via a cell phone or PDA.
Get great stock tips as well over the Internet. The Internet isn't just a place to find out what your stocks have been up to. You can also find the latest trends and stock tips online. Some websites, like The Street, offer stock tips at a price. There are, however, quite a few sites that offer free stock tips and trends for you to check out.
Hot Stock Market (free membership)
HotStockAlert (free e-newsletter)
However you get stock quotes you will want to stay as informed as possible when you are investing in the stock market. Check the stock quotes regularly so you can make an informed decision whether you should buy, sell or hold.
