Quote
The convenience of a free stock quote is it immediately gives
you the price of your stock where it was last traded. If you’re
an active stock trader, stock quotes are necessary. To make
a proper buying or selling decision, you need to know where
the current market price is relative to your original costs.
Stock quotes are mainly provided by financial sites and stock
brokers. In addition to giving free stock quotes, a good stockbroker
needs to be competitive on commission pricing, have comprehensive
market research and have a reliable stock order system.
Getting a free stock quote is just one ingredient to making
money from trading stocks. You need to access to information
which gives you insight on stocks that are ready to break out
on the upside. This entails becoming familiar with the company’s
business, the industry it competes in and its financial standing
relative to its peers. The key to generating good investment
returns is recognizing the stock purchasing opportunity before
the rest of the investor crowd.
How Often To Get A Stock Quote
Being updated on the last price dealt of the stock you’re
following is part of being a stock investor. You want to know
whether you were up or down from where you originally purchased
the stock. Should it be once every hour, once a day, once a
week or even every half hour? The answer depends on what type
of stock investor or trader you are.
The Buy and Hold Investor
This is probably the most common of the equity investors.
For most participants, it’s arguably the most successful
strategy. You simply buy the stock and forget about it. Excessive
trading fees and paying capital taxes are avoided. The objective
is to invest in a properly managed company that consistently
grows its revenue and profit. These companies have a track
record of at least five years.
An ideal buy and hold stock is one that pays out a dividend.
Companies that generate healthy returns for its shareholders
have a record of consistently paying and increasing its dividends.
For these investors, they enjoy share price appreciation and
growing dividend payouts.
This individual is more concerned with the business fundamentals
of the corporation. Their time horizon is a minimum of 5 years.
As long as the corporation continues to thrive, this investor
won’t be too worried about how the stock is trading
daily or even weekly. This investor checks the share price
now and then just to keep tab.
The Momentum Investor/Position Trader
Whether you are a momentum investor or a position trader,
the objective is to generate returns in excess of 30% within
weeks or months. The approach to investing is the same and
the individual can be categorized as one or the other. To
identify a potential investment opportunity, the investor
looks for the following: Rapid growth in sales and earnings,
forecasts of sales and earnings being revised higher, return
on equity in excess of 15%, the stock price chart showing
price appreciation and heavy share trading volume.
Since these shares can appreciate rapidly, they can lose
their value just as quickly if investors feel the company’s
recent positive developments is losing momentum. The investor
must be prepared to sell the stock if business conditions
or the share price shows signs of deterioration.
To keep track of the company’s latest progress, this
investor needs to monitor the share price on a daily basis.
This market participant refers to the stock quote several
times during the day. The investor must be prepared to act
when the opportunity presents itself or the situation suddenly
weakens.
The Swing Trader
The swing trader looks to pick a stock’s price appreciation
within one to four days. These market participants do not
pay attention to the company’s intrinsic value or business
fundamentals. They are only interested in the short-term price
momentum of the share price. The key is to use technical analysis,
the analysis of a stock’s past price history to predict
future price behavior, to take advantage of any short term
trading opportunities.
There are a variety of trading systems that the trader can
use. Never the less, this individual relies on stock quotes
during the course of the day. They must constantly monitor
the stock price so that they know when to buy or sell the
stock. The goal is to maximize the profit from brief price
upswings. If the stock trade does not materialize as hoped,
the stock must be quickly sold to minimize losses.
The Day Trader
The day trader attempts to profit from the buying and selling
of stocks throughout the day. At the end of the daily trading
session, this individual holds no stock positions. A gain
or loss is taken in on the difference between the purchase
and sales prices. The time span between assuming a stock position
and unwinding it is usually in minutes or in hours at the
most. For this trader, the latest stock quotes are constantly
required since buying and selling decisions are made very
quickly.
|
©2008 Venworth.com