| Stock quotes are the information about the price of | | | | market capitalization, earnings per share (EPS), |
| stock at a particular time. They are displayed either | | | | dividend yield, P/E ratio, closing price, highest price of |
| as fractions or decimals. Stock quotes provide most | | | | the day, and lowest price of the day. |
| valuable information about stock and stock market | | | | By theory, a stock has a set of stock quotes as bid |
| changes. They are also the primary tool for traders | | | | price and ask price. The bid price is the price which |
| to execute trade. Quotes are also available for other | | | | market makers or specialists are ready to pay for |
| derivatives like futures, options, forex currencies etc. | | | | the stock and ask price is the price at which the |
| Stock quotes can be grouped into various types as | | | | market maker is ready to sell the stock. The |
| historical stock quotes, delayed stock quotes and | | | | difference between the ask and the bid price is the |
| real-time stock quotes. Historical stock quotes are | | | | spread, which is mainly responsible for liquidity in low |
| stock prices and change patterns before certain | | | | priced stocks. The need of ask and bid prices in a |
| period of time - useful to understand and determine | | | | stock quote is purely because the market need a |
| periodical stock trends. Delayed stock quotes are | | | | market maker to buy the stock whenever one |
| usually free stock quotes provided by various | | | | trader sells it and to sell the stock whenever on |
| institutions, journals, portals, etc. which have 15 or 20 | | | | want to buy it. |
| minutes delay. They are useful for most stock | | | | A stock trader can find stock quotes from a variety |
| market investors and small scale traders. Real-time | | | | of resources. Free delayed stock quotes are available |
| stock quotes, also known as live stock quotes or | | | | from newspapers, journals, company websites, stock |
| streaming stock quotes, are provided by specialized | | | | market, market maker and stock broker websites, |
| quote sites and through stock market trading | | | | popular search engines and portals like Yahoo! Finance |
| systems with less than a minute delay. Live streaming | | | | and MSN Money, and various financial websites. As |
| stock quotes are vital for online day traders trading | | | | told earlier real-time stock quotes are paid services. |
| according to very small changes in stock prices. | | | | These services also provide timely alerts and triggers |
| The presentation of stock quotes can vary greatly, | | | | to automate and better execute traders, and are |
| they may be graphs with values, simple line of phrase | | | | integrated with powerful mathematical and visual |
| with alphabets and decimals, or tables showing values. | | | | tools to formulate right trading strategies. Recently |
| Similarly stock quote presentation of different | | | | Google and CNBC have presented their readiness to |
| sources may also vary from single 'last price' value to | | | | provide free real-time stock quotes of NYSE stocks |
| full details including the price change of the day, the | | | | to SEC, which if come true will be an added benefit |
| trading range of the day, 52 week (one year) range, | | | | to all type of traders. |
| the volume traded, the average volume of trade, | | | | |