As every smart investor knows, getting the right stock information gives you the knowledge you need to make sound investment decisions. Unlike earlier days when investors had to rely on limited stock quotes published in daily newspapers or broadcast on radio or television, today the Internet is teeming with real-time information about stocks. In some cases, quotes are delayed for a period not to exceed 30 minutes, during which time analysts summarize and post accurate information about the stock. On different sites, one can easily find out what mutual funds, bonds, indices, stocks, and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are trading for. In addition to stock quotes, earnings reports, financial reports, interest briefs, analyst coverage, and SEC filings on specific companies can be accessed from the web. Knowing the history of the company helps the investor decide if the stock is strong enough to justify his investment.
Most stock quotes are freely available, and all one has to do is identify the most informative site to use. To make the user experience even more rewarding, some of the sites that list the trading prices of specific stocks allow the user to download the information into computer applications such as OpenOffice and Microsoft Excel, among others. Should a site like Yahoo! Finance or MSN Money, you will be able to browse the price quotes for a specific company by typing the name of the company in a text box provided. In cases where an investor wants to compare the stock prices of different companies, he can type the names (or acronyms) of the companies he is interested in and click the search icon.
For investors who are curious about where websites like Yahoo! Finance, MSN money or DailyFinance.com obtain your information, it should be noted that the websites rely on more than 3,000 sources of information. Some of the sources transmit similar information to the websites and therefore it is the job of the website administrator to compare the information and verify that only the most accurate information is published on the website. Investors’ assessment of stock quotes is enhanced by interactive charts posted on different financial websites on the Internet. Company events, such as financial gains and dividends awarded to shareholders, can also be used as a viable indicator of the company’s financial performance and therefore the level of risk associated with its actions.
On different financial websites, real-time stock quotes are available on stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and NASDAQ. To access quotes from other countries, you may need to search for the specific stock exchanges where the stock is listed. With the Internet making the world a global village, investors interested in monitoring stocks can access stock quotes similar to how they access quotes for national companies. This has made trading for the supervising investor not only fast, but also effective.