How to Read Stocks Without Being an Investing Genius
Posted on Jan 28 2008 | Tagged as: Finance
If you’re just starting out learning how the stock market works, reading the stock tables in the paper can be confusing. Though it might be intimidating, it’s important to learn how to read stocks. Don’t worry, it won’t take much time.
There are twelve columns in the table, and you’ll notice that each stock has its own line in this table. Let’s examine the first two columns, which are usually named something like “52W High” and 52W Low.” These tell you about the stock’s performance over the last year. “52W High” shows the highest point the stock has reached in the past 52 weeks, and “52W Low” shows the lowest.
In the follow column you’ll see the actual name of the stock. This will be followed by another column that shows the stock’s ticker symbol. Every stock is given a unique combination of letters. In fact, you might be able to recognize some of them. Maybe you’ve seen the tickers running across the bottom of the screen when you watch the news.
By the way, watching some of the financial shows could be a good idea. It will further your knowledge even more on how to read stocks and understand the way the market works.
Next to the ticker column is a column labeled “Div.” From this column, you see how much in annual dividends the stock pays out for every share. Many rows will have this column blank, which means they don’t currently pay out dividends. The same rule also applies to the very next column, “Yield %”, the percentage return on the dividend.
The earnings ratio is indicated by P/E. Dividing the current stock price by earnings per share for the last four quarters gives you this number.
”High” and “Low” are the next two columns. In the day’s trading, you’ll be able to see the highest and lowest points that the stock has reached. “Close” is the point at which the stock closed that day, and “Net Change” shows the change from the day before.
Once you’re armed with a good working knowledge of how to read stocks, you can begin to delve into other aspects of the market.
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- Carlie Evie