Learn To Read Stock Market Quotes - Its Not Difficult

Many people are afraid to start investing in stocks because there seems to be so much that they will need to learn first, and it's true that investing in the stock market isn't for everyone. But if you're thinking about doing it one thing you will need to do is to learn to read stock market quotes. It's not really as hard as it may seem.

Here is a breakdown of what the average quotes will have on them:

1. Price. This will tell you the most current price that stock was traded at.

2. Bid. This is the current price you would get for a stock if you were to sell it.

3. Ask. This is the lowest price a particular stock is currently selling for. The difference amount between the ask and the bid price is called the spread. The ask is generally the price you would pay to buy the stock.

4. Close. Also known as 'previous close' or 'closing price' this amount is the price the stock was sold at when trading ended the day before.

5. Change. The amount of change in the price the stock sold for between the previous close and the last trade.

6. Open. This will tell you what amount the stock trades for the first time it is sold on that particular day.

7. Day's Range. This is the difference between the lowest and highest prices that a certain stock has been sold for during one trading day.

8. Yearly Range. This will tell you the highest and lowest amounts that a stock has been traded for in the last year. It can also be called '52 week range'.

9. Volume. This is how many shares of a particular stock were traded during one day.

10. Average Volume. This is how many shares traded on one days worth of trading that has been averaged out.

11. Market Cap. This is the value of the outstanding shares of a company.

12. Dividend. This number will tell you the amount of money that has been paid in dividends for the last year. While this doesn't mean that shareholders will continue to make this amount, it's generally not a popular idea for companies to cut dividends.

12. Dividend Yield. This number will divide the amount of the dividend by the stock price to let shareholders know what they can expect to make in the unlikely event that the dividend and the stocks price stay at the same level for next year.

13. Earnings Per Share or EPS. This will let shareholders know how much profit the company has made in the preceding year.

14. Price / Earnings Ratio. This number will tell you the ratio of the price of the companies stocks to the EPS.

When you learn to read stock market quotes the above list includes the most commonly found figures, though they may not be the only ones. Learning all you can about investing, before you start putting your money up for grabs, is an extremely smart strategy. More often than not when you hear about someone who 'lost their shirt' in the stock market it's because they simply didn't know what they were doing. While even the experts will lose once in a while, you will lose less and make more if you take the time right from the start to learn what it's all about. This article will help you with that.