Understanding stock prices
A stock price represents the most recent price at which a seller and a buyer of a stock agreed on a price to make the trade. Because stock prices are determined by a continuous auction process between buyers and sellers, stock prices often change when buyers and sellers change. Prices also change when new information about that company, industry or economy becomes public; this new information then changes buyers’ and sellers’ expectations of the stock’s future performance.
Details
Usually when you get a share price, you’ll see lots of other information about that company and that share price. The most important thing to note is the timestamp which shows how old the stock price is. The other important information a stock quote shows is the day’s high, low, and volume, and sometimes the 52-week high and low.
The stock chart
After noticing the price and the daily high, low and volume, take a look at the stock chart. The chart above shows the stock chart for the last month. Also click on the 1 day, 5 day, 3 month and 1 year links to see these charts. It is always important to not only get an idea of what the stock price is doing today, but to also look for the short and longer term trends.
Dividend, dividend yield and Ex-Div Date
Companies that are consistently profitable often pay out a portion of their profits to shareholders. This is called a dividend. The dividend yield is the percentage of the share price paid out per year. The ex-div date is the date on which the last payment was based. You had to be a shareholder at the close of the previous day to receive that dividend. Most companies pay dividends annually but there are some exceptions to this.
Buying and selling course
When looking at a stock price, also take note of the Bid and Ask prices if they are displayed. The Bid price is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for the stock; the Ask price is the lowest price a seller is willing to sell the stock. If you place a market order to buy the stock, your order will be executed closer to the ask price. If you place a market order to sell the stock, your order will be executed closer to the buy price.
Exchange rate changes
Nowadays, most exchanges only use decimals and allow stock prices to be quoted in pennies (and sometimes lower than that). Stock prices can either be in real time or with a certain delay (like 15 minutes delay).
Stock price components
Financial newspapers, websites or newsletters have stock quotes that include the following information: 52-week high and low – These are the high and low prices that a stock traded during the previous 52 weeks (one year). Company Name and Stock Type – This column indicates the name of the stock’s company. If the name does not have special symbols or letters, it is usually a common stock. Different special symbols mean different classes of shares. For example, “pf” would mean that the shares are a preference share. Short name – A stock symbol or ticker symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify listed shares of a specific company’s stock on a particular exchange/stock market. A stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both. Dividend per share – This indicates how much money a company pays per share. If it is empty, the company does not pay dividends to its shareholders. Dividend yield – The percentage return to shareholders in dividends per year. You can calculate it by dividing the annual dividend per share by the price per share. Price/earnings ratio – You can calculate this by dividing the share price by the current earnings per share from the last year. This is also called a P/E ratio. Trading volume – This is the total number of shares traded for a specific day, listed in hundreds. Of course, you can figure out the actual number traded by adding “00” to the end of the number. Day High and Low – This shows the daily highest price and the lowest price someone paid for the stock. Close – The close is the last trading price when the market closes. Net Change – This is the change in value of the stock price since the previous day’s closing price. When you hear that a stock is “up for the day”, it means that the price increased for the day.
Stock prices on the Internet
Today, most people get their stock prices from the Internet. You can get much more information online than you can get from newspapers. Many sites like www.vikingen.se now offer historical financial statements and great charting opportunities.
About the Vikingen
With Vikingen’s signals, you have a good chance of finding the winners and selling in time. There are many securities. With Vikingen’s autopilots or tables, you can sort out the most interesting ETFs, stocks, options, warrants, funds, and so on. Vikingen is one of Sweden’s oldest equity research programs.
Click here to see what Vikingen offers: Detailed comparison – Stock market program for those who want to get even richer (vikingen.se)
