How to Read Stocks and Actually Understand Them

by: CarlieEviee
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Word Count: 320

Reading the stock tables in the newspaper can be very confusing when you're just learning about the stock market. It's important to learn how to read stocks, though, and it won't take a lot of time.

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.

Speaking of TV, you might want to watch the financial shows. They can give you a lot of help and information that will show you how to read stocks and understand the stock market even better.

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. Dividing the current stock price by earnings per share for the last four quarters gives you this number.

The next two columns are "High" and "Low." In the day's trading, you'll be able to see the highest and lowest points that the stock has reached. "Close" is the point at which the stock closed that day, and "Net Change" shows the change from the day before.

With a basic understanding of how to read stocks, you can now move on and start learning more about the market itself.

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