Stock Market?
(Hello, Im 19 years old and wanted to learn a little more about the stock market and how it works.
In the stock market right now and i see all these things that dont really understand, hoping that someone could tell me what all this means?
$ Last Trade – 27.87
Volume – 45,216,569
$ Change – 0.12
% Change – 0.43
Knowing all this can someone tell me what all this means and tell me if i did own this stock how much money i would have made?
Thanks in advance.)
Answer:
“$ Last Trade” is the price at which the last trade was made. A trade being someone selling stock to someone else. It’s basically the “going price” of a share of stock.
Volume is the number of shares that traded hands during the day.
Change (%, and $) is the change between yesterday’s closing price and the current price ($ Last Trade). I’m not sure if your “-” is a dash or a negative sign. Below, I’ve assumed it’s a negative sign. If it’s a dash, then change my “loss” to “gain.”
In this case, the current price is $27.87. When the market closed last night, the price was $27.87 + $0.12 or $27.99.
If you bought at the closing price ($27.99) and then sold right now ($27.87), you’d have lost 12 cents per share. If you had 100 shares, you’d have lost $12 plus commissions paid to your broker.
Keep in mind that “last trade” is not necessarily the price you’ll get for buying or selling. Price fluctuates (more so on certain stocks than others). Plus, the information is usually at least 20 minutes old.
Posted: July 25th, 2010 under US Stock Market.
Tags: Stock market