Stock market news is all around us everyday in different forms. It's on TV, it's on ticker tapes in front of financial buildings, it's in the newspaper in the form of stock tables and it's on the internet. So how do you make sense of the all the financial data coming from these resources? Learning how to read the stock market is an essential requirement for becoming a successful investor.Here are the basics you need to know.
How to Read the Stock Market Tables
Open any newspaper to the financial section and you'll see a table full of numbers, arrows and letters. This is usually a stock table and it encapsulates the stock market's performance for that day as well as gives you past data for comparative analysis.
Although every paper's stock tables might be slightly different, in general, they all contain the same basic info. Here's how to read the stock market table:
52 week high: This figure gives you the highest price for a particular share in the last 52 weeks. It's crucial to be able to determine the performance of a stock over time and analyze trends.
52 week low: This figure will give you the lowest price for a share in the last 52 weeks (nearly a year). It's also crucial for evaluating trends and performance. When combined with the 52-week high figure, it should5 give you an accurate assessment of the stock's yearly performance.
Name/Symbol: This column contains both the company name and its stock symbol. A stock symbol is usually a 3-letter symbol used to identify the company in the stock market. You need to know the stock symbol of any companies you invest in so you can track their performance over time and also when you use the internet to find stock quotes. Companies often pick memorable ticker symbols, so for example, Genentech, a biotechnology firm, has the stock symbol DNA.
Dividend: The amount paid on an annual basis by a company as profit to its shareholders.
Volume: The number of shares traded today for a particular stock.
Yield: Yield is a percentage calculated as dividend divided by stock price; the yield of a particular stock may change on a daily basis depending on its stock price for that day.
P/E Ratio: This ratio is simply the price of stock divided by the company's earnings per share. In general a lower P/E ratio is desirable because it would mean that the company is a good value investment for the current price.
Net Change: The net change measures the differential in the stock price between its current price and the price the day before, and reports the change as a percentage.
How to Read the Stock Market Ticker Tape
The stock market ticker tape runs on TV channels, as well as outside financial buildings and the Internet. It's usually a quick glance at how various stocks are performing on the current day. It denotes stocks by their symbol, which can be anywhere from one to four letters. Some companies abbreviate their business name, so Google's symbol is GOOG, while other companies use their entire name, such as NIKE.
The ticker generally also shows either a green arrow, indicating increase in stock price, or a red arrow indicating a decrease in stock price followed by a percentage figure denoting the amount of change in stock price for the day's trading.
Both stock tables and stock tickers are helpful for an investor to monitor and track stock performance. Knowing how to read the stock market is crucial for any investor because stock investing is all about making and then monitoring your investment so you can tweak your stock portfolio to optimal market conditions.
Best Online Stock Trading Platforms Reviewed
When it comes to choosing the best online stock trading platforms that are available to investors today, it is best to research the trading platforms that are well-known and reputable. An investor should never take a chance with some stock trading platform that nobody has ever heard of. There are enough risks in trading stocks and there is no need to make things any more difficult than need be. When comparing stock trading platforms it is often helpful for a stock investor to make a list of things that are important to them as a stock market trader. (i.e. cost of trades, stock research tools, ability to mobile trade, initial deposit required, etc...)
Popular Stock Trading Platforms & Services
Benefits offered by best online stock brokers:
- Scottrade - Scottrade has been one of the top investing platforms online for years now and is a good option for most stock market investors. $500 minimum deposit to fund your investing account. No opening or maintenance fees are involved with your Scottrade account. Easy to open an account or transfer a brokerage account from another broker. Online trades are just $7 for stocks that are priced $1 and above regardless of frequency or your account balance. Trade options for just $7 plus $1.25 per contract for market and limit orders. Trade as often as you like without worrying about hidden fees. Easily monitor your investment account, research and trade from any Internet-enabled mobile devices. Research the stock market and get quick stock quotes. Stay up-to-the-minute with complimentary Dow Jones News.
- E-Trade - E-Trade is another big player in the online stock market trading area and has been for over 20 years. Setting up an account on E-Trade takes about 10 minutes and you can trade free for 60 days. Easy, intuitive online investing and 24/7 customer service. $9.99 and less for stock and options trades. Over 8,000 mutual funds and 30,000 bonds available for trading. Innovative investing & trading tools to help investors make better trades. You get free independent research and a huge resource of investing information educational resources. Stocks, options, futures and Forex. Whatever you desire to trade, ETrade has you covered.regardless of account balance or how many shares you buy and zero maintenance fees. Trade free up to 60 days and get up to $600 in your account. Independent, objective investing research from S&P Capital IQ, Morningstar Associates, and ResearchTeam. Easy to use online trading tools. In business over 35 years, TD Ameritrade is a favorite among online investors.
The above online stock brokers are all reputable online businesses and have excellent reviews for thousands of stock traders. It is hard to go wrong by choosing one of best online stock trading platforms available and will make your future investments easier, more profitable, and more manageable than ever before.
No matter how large or small, 2013 is set to be a year in which all businesses need to make sure that they are as cost efficient as possible.
As the uncertain global economic situation continues, there are several ways to cut costs and increase efficiency. From the first weeks of the year, you will see real savings accumulate over the next twelve months. Here are a few suggestions to get the ball rolling:
1. Adopt flexible working practices
By cutting the need to travel, instant savings can be made; not least by cutting expenditure on rising fuel costs. Moving to conference calls rather than face to face meetings saves time and money without compromising efficiency.
Flexible working can help you to manage your workforce more efficiently, reduce costs and improve morale. With innovative use of remote office applications, workers can work flexibly in terms of hours and location, meaning savings across the business.
2. Consolidate to control costs
If you're going to shift operations to telecoms and IT, then it is imperative that you can be confident that you are doing so efficiently. 62 per cent of UK businesses have more than four suppliers for telecoms and IT alone. By switching to a unified communications package you can integrate applications on a single platform or device which results in real savings.
3. Make Sure Your Business is Energy Efficient
According to the Confederation of British Industry, businesses in the UK waste on average 10-20 per cent of the energy they buy. That translates to a great deal of money wasted and a comprehensive review of the ways in which your company uses energy can result in great savings.
Reducing the heating by a single degree can save 10 per cent of the annual heating budget. Consider Start by addressing out of hours consumption; this is where businesses waste thousands.
Simple things like turning computers and monitors off, ensuring that water consumption is kept within reason or reducing printing waste can save fortunes. Consider getting vehicle tracking devices on your company cars (here you can find fleet management on Expert Market, a B2B website).
4. Sub-let Space
Many offices operate within their physical means and leave space lying empty. Identify whether you are maximising the potential of your business suite. By sub-letting that space wisely, you can not only generate vital revenue rather than paying for space you're not utilising, but also build your business network. This is done by ensuring that a potential client or contractor sets up their office on your territory. The potential benefits are huge if you can snare the right tenant.
5. Review The Company Postage Spend
There is huge waste on postage. A shift to second from first class can mean at best 24 hours difference in delivery times, but very often makes no difference. Many companies send everything by second class, and watch how much that can save.
Even more cost effective is the leasing a franking machine, in spite of lease costs. Apart from removing the need to buy stamps, each frank also carries a 1p saving. This adds up to an average saving of 5 per cent, with many machines also providing free credit.
6. Content Marketing
Simply "advertising" your business is not enough in the competitive online market. Harnessing inbound marketing techniques will help you to attract the greatest number of people interested in your products and services.
It is far more cost effective and therefore profitable to find a targeted group of consumers or businesses, rather than scatter gun the entire market. Rewrite your website to exactly what it is you're selling and the type of customers you want to attract. In doing so, ensure that you meet higher SEO and page rank standards.
7. Harness Human Resources
Increased productivity and job satisfaction will always result in raise profits and this will come from ensuring your existing workforce is efficient and motivated. Frequently, the best money-saving initiatives and cost-saving improvements come from a skilled team of efficient workers.
The key is to instill a sense of ownership in the enterprise and keep workplace motivation high. By encouraging the cross-training of employees across the business workloads in different departments can be more effectively managed, in-house skill sets built and proliferated, and training costs that come with new hires and temps reduced or eradicated.
8. Switch to Open Source Software
Open-source software costs a fraction of the price of most of the major commercial products while still offering all, if not more, of the features. Adoption of open source solutions can drive down your IT budget but doesn't need to mean that you are sacrificing functionality in the name of saving money.
Aside from the attraction of saving money the open source option provides benefits in terms of security, the lack of vendor 'lock in' and, arguably, better quality.
These are just 8 ideas to get you started but throughout every business a simple review of working methods, allied with a bit of creative thinking, can transform your working methods and make a more efficient business far more profitable.
The New Year has just arrived with awesome technology advancement. 2013 is a year of touch screen gadgets, and laptops that will play the major role in the current year are already launched by biggest brands. These laptops not only carry touch screen features but every, single hardware used in them is using cutting-edge technology. These touch screen laptops are not only smarter but the operating system used in them is also a masterpiece. Together Windows 8 and touch screen laptop has bought a revolution in the information technology world.
Some elegant and stylish laptops with a smooth design and beauty is demand of every person, but together when combined with most powerful hardware and strong computing capabilities in the world made them best laptops of 2013. Comparison of some best laptops of 2013 is as follows.
Dell XPS 12 Series
The leading brand of laptop is still on lead with its super model. 12.5 inches of full HD screen with multi-touch feature has its own fun. Moreover, you can take your laptop to a new level of excitement with innovative and durable flip hinge. Intel core i7 processor with turbo boost of 3.0 GHz powers it. It has massive memory of 8 GB with a bus speed of 1600 MHz. It comes with the preloaded solid state drive with memory capacity of 256 GB.
Asus TAICHI 21 Series
Asus is a big name in extreme computing hardware. Once again, a thrilling feature of dual screen display makes it all in one convertible ultra book. It is an 11.6-inch multi touch screen, which displays full HD display. It has Intel chipset and powered by Intel core i7 processor with 4 MB cache and turbo speed up to 3.0GHz. It has massive memory of 8 GB with a bus speed of 1600 MHz. Solid state drive with 256 GB of capacity that can load applications with blazing fast speed.
Sony VAIO DUO 11 Series
Sony is a big brand name in the world of laptop. The Sony new ultra book is one of its kind with sleek design and full HD touch screen of 11.6-inch. It's flip design can convert it from laptop to tablet to enjoy amazing features of Windows 8. Intel core i7 processor with 4 MB cache power this super machine and memory up to 8 GB supports multi tasking. It comes with solid-state drive with capacity of 256 GB.
IdeaPad Yoga 13 Series
Lenovo has finally made a super convertible ultra book to unbelievable feature of all in one tablet and laptop. It has a 13.3-inch touch screen with support of multi-touch. It is capable to display resolution of 16:9 wide-screen. The 3rd generation Intel core i7 processor with 8 GB memory and 256 GB of hard disk makes it ultra fast laptop.
Acer Aspire S7 Series
Finally, Acer launched its masterpiece after a long time that has won many awards. It's sleek and slim design speaks of its beauty. Touch screen of 13.3 inch is ready to use for any mode with screen resolution 1920 x 1080 delivers full HD picture. An Intel core i7 processor powers this ultra book and solid-state drive up to 256 GB breaks speed limit of every application. It has standard memory of 4 GB.Popular Posts
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