Saturday, December 24, 2005

How to Read a Stock Quote Table?

Reading a detailed stock quote table helps you understand what is going on with the company's shares int the stock market. Besides getting the latest price on a stock, you also get other information that will help judge investor sentiment for that day.

Explanation of what goes into a stock quote table:

Name and Ticker Symbol: The company name which appears on top of the table.

Lastest Price: This is the last price on which the stock traded.

Percentage Change: The difference between the last traded price of the stock and the price of the previous close.

Volume: The number of shares traded on that day.

Day's High: The highest price that the stock traded at during the current trading day.

Day's Low: The lowest price that on which the stock traded during the current trading day.

Open: The price of stock on that trade of the day i.e. the intial price.

Previous Close: The last price traded of the stock from the previous trading day.

52 Week High: The highest price on which the stock reached during the last 52 weeks or 1 Year.

52 Week Low: The lowest price on whcih the stock reached during the last 52 weeks or 1 year.

Market Cap: The current market value of the company. The market capitalization is calculated by taking the current market price of the share and multiplying it by the number of shares outstanding.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

How To Invest And Make Your Money Grow?

Wise investments of your savings can be a great way to grow rich. These days, savings accounts offer very low interest and it is a waste to allow your money to lie in them. Based on your appetite for risk and your financial needs, you have various other investment schemes and options to choose from.

It is always safer to have a diversified portfolio i.e. to spread you investments around in various types of schemes. So that the risks and returns get balanced out. You invest in post office schemes or divesified mutual funds. For those of you with greater risk-taking ability, stock markets or mutual funds can be a good idea. In stock markets, you can buy shares of companies listed on the stock exchange. Usually, good companies offer dividends along with a fair return on your investment consistently. Dividends are not mandatory, but a lot of companies like to distribute their profits among shareholders as dividends.

Some companies prefer to reinvest the profits into expansion projects instead of declaring dividends. These re-investments in turn should lead to further profits. However, all said and done the stock markets are unpredictable and a lot of people who trade or invest in stocks with the purpose of making some quick bucks may end up with losses instead.

Mutual funds are relatively safer investments, though they are also subject to market risk. Mutual funds are investments made in the stock market by financial managers with a fund collected from actual investors. There can be sectorspecific mutual funds for example those that invest in Pharmaceutical or IT or infrastructure companies only. Whatever be the mode of your investment in the markets, it is vital that you track these on a regular basis. If the prices of your shares or mutual funds decline at a time when there is a slowdown in the economy as a whole, there is no need to panic and sell at a loss. The markets will quite likely bounce back to where they were or perhaps even better. However, if the markets are strong and yet, the value of your mutual funds is on a decline, it could mean it is not well invested and it would be advisable for you to sell and move your money into something that will generate better returns. A financial consultant can advise you about the market situation and what types of investments will suit your needs best.