Learn to read a stock quote

One of the most basic things you can do while trying to learn about investing and picking stocks is to monitor the markets via stock quotes.  For many novice investors the table of information can often be confusing, so we will try to explain the meaning of each of the different numbers offered up.  Below is an image of what a typical stock quote looks like.  There are many numbers offered, each provider of quotes will vary slightly in the information offered but this is a good starting point.  We will work from left to right and top to bottom to explain the different meanings.

Last Price-the last price which the stock has traded at.

Change ($, and %)- the amount the stock has changed in dollar(s) and percent from its opening that day.  If you are viewing quotes at nights or on the weekend it is the amount of change from the opening of the last day of trading.

Tick- in this case there is no data given, however it is referring to the ticker symbol which is an abbreviated letter combination of the company.  Ie.  Loblaws= L, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce=CM.  These are used to search for a company’s stock price.

Bid- when people are trading stocks the buyers offer up bids for how much they are willing to pay for a stock the last bid price is what we are seeing here.

Bid size- the amount of shares that a trader is asking to purchase.

Ask- conversely when people are selling stocks they have a price they are willing to sell for, ask and this is what we are seeing here.  The difference between the bid price and the ask price is called the bid ask spread.

Ask size- the amount of shares a trader is wanting, or willing, to sell.

Open- The price at which the stock opened that day and which the price changes (in dollars and percent) refer to when calculating gains and losses for the quote for the day.

High- the most money the particular stock has traded for that day.

Low- the least money the particular stock has traded for that day.

Prev. close- the price at which the stock finished the day before.

Last trade- is the date or time at which the last trade was made.

Volume- the amount of shares traded for the company that day, in this case listed in millions.

52 week high/low- The most amount of money the stock has traded for in the last 52 weeks.  The opposite is true for the 52 week low.

Market Cap- is the company’s market capitalization, essentially the amount of shares on the market multiplied by the companies share price.  In this case listed in billions of dollars.

Ex-dividend-  this is a date by which you must be a shareholder of record in order to be eligible to receive the company’s dividend.

Div rate-  the amount of money the stock pays, per year and per share to its shareholders.

Div Yield-  the amount, expressed as a percentage that the company pays to its shareholders per share per year.

Shares or (shares outstanding)- the amount of shares currently owned by the public.  The amount of share outstanding multiplied by the share price is equal the company’s market capitalization.

EPS(TTM)- earnings per share, trailing twelve months.  Is the amount of money the company has earned on a per share basis in the last twelve months.

PE (ratio)- price to earnings ratio,  is the price the stock is trading at divided by the companies earnings on a per share basis.  PE ratio is a subject unto itself, so for now it is enough to know what it means.

Exchange- in this case is the TSX or Toronto Stock Exchange.  When searching for stock prices it is important to realize that some stocks are dual listed.  Which means that the stock can be listed on the Toronto exchange and another exchange ie.  the New York stock exchange.