How to Read Stocks and Actually Understand Them
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 column after that you will discover the name of the stock and then the ticker symbol for that stock. You will probably recognize some of these from the tickers that run across the bottom of the screen sometimes on the 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, which is calculated by taking the stock prices and dividing it by the the earnings per share over the last four quarters.
“High” and “Low” are the next two columns. You’ll be able to see the lowest and highest point the stock has reached in the day’s trading. “Net Change” shows the change from the day before; “Close” tells you the point when the stock closed for the day.
You’ll be able to move on and learn even more about the stock market once you have a basic understanding of how to read stocks.
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