← Stocks · lesson 3 of 12
By the end of this one you'll know what a ticker is and how to read every number on a stock quote without squinting.
A ticker is a short nickname the market gives a company, usually one to five letters, the same way I tag every cow so the auction barn knows exactly which animal is which. When you look up that ticker you get a quote, which is today's info card for one share, and a share is just one small piece of that company. The big number on the quote is the price, and it simply means the last trade, the most recent price a buyer and a seller agreed on. Next to it sits a change number, like plus 50 cents, comparing right now to the close, which is where the price ended yesterday. You might also see volume, and that's just how many shares traded today, how busy the barn was for that one animal. That's really the whole card: nickname, last price, change since yesterday, and how busy. Ten seconds, read like a rancher.
Same lesson, told by a hundred dollar bill. Tap to walk it one step at a time.
In this example a quote shows $20. 00 with +$0. 50 (+2. 6%) next to it.
That means the last trade was $20, which is 50 cents higher than yesterday's close of $19.
50.
So $100 buys 5 shares today, and yesterday afternoon those same 5 shares would have cost $97.
50.
It's 11 at night, kids finally down, and you're scrolling on the couch. A video flashes a stock quote, green numbers, a plus 0.50, percent signs, and the guy talks like everybody already understands. You feel that little wall go up, the one that says this stuff isn't for you.
Pick your move. Then peek at the other roads if you're curious.
A stock quote is just an info card, nickname, last price, change since yesterday, and how busy the trading was.