The ticker tape can be a bewildering blur of numbers for beginning investors, but it is a wonderfully condensed way to give investors information of on the movements of the stock market. Each stock quote contains five valuable pieces of information about each transaction that occurs.

Here is a stock quote for example

MSFT     5k  @   26.64   ▼     1.35
  (1)         (2)          (3)      (4)     (5)

• Ticker Symbol – the letters used to identify a company.
• Shares Traded – The number of shares that changed hands for the trade being quoted. K stands for 1,000, M is 1,000,000 and B is 1,000,000,000.
• Price Traded – this is the price per share for the trade being quoted (the last bid price).
• Change of Direction – This arrow shows whether the stock is trading higher or lower than the previous day’s closing price.

Change Amount – this is the difference in price from the previous day’s close.