Jun
How to Read Stocks With These Simple Tips
When you’re first learning about the stock market, the stock tables in the paper can be quite confusing. Learning how to read stocks won’t take much time, though, and it’s very important.
To begin, you’ll notice that there are about twelve columns across the table, and each stock has its own line. The first two columns (usually labeled something like “52W High” and “52W Low”) are dealing with the stock’s performance over the past year. “52W High” shows the highest point the stock has reached in the past 52 weeks, and “52W Low” shows the lowest.
The next column is the name of the stock itself, followed by another column showing the stock’s ticker symbol. Every stock is given a unique combination of letters. Perhaps you’ll even recognize a few (or more than a few) of these tickers. They periodically run across the bottom of the screen of cable news networks.
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.” This indicates the stock’s annual dividend paid out per share. Many rows will have this column blank, which means they don’t currently pay out dividends. The same goes for the next column - “Yield %” - the percentage return on the dividend.
P/E is the price to earnings ratio. Dividing the current stock price by earnings per share for the last four quarters gives you this number.
After that you will discover the columns of “High” and “Low.” These are the highest and lowest points that the stock reached in the day’s trading. “Net Change” refers to how much the stock price has changed from the previous day, and “Close” lets you know what the final price was when the stock market closed for the day.
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.
