Once you have your chosen and set up your broker account, it's
time to review what a typical detailed stock quote will provide
you, the investor.
[caption id="attachment_67961" align="alignright" width="300"
caption="Stock brokers working at the New York Stock Exchange,
1963"]
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Lets get this weekend's homework assignment out of the way first
as it builds on our last
assignment to find some companies whose products you
use
. I want you to pick one of the sectors you selected that has at
least two companies in that you found and I want to pull the
following information for at least two companies in the same
sector:
- Balance sheet
- Income statement
- Cash flow statement
- At least two analyst rating sheets.
Below are a few good firms to pull from:
- Research Team
- Credit Suisse
- Ford Equity Research
Depending on which broker you choose you may get some reports
free, otherwise Googling for the analyst reports may result in some
of them, but be careful and look for the dates on the reports.
Now onto today's insight. A detailed stock quote is also
sometimes referred to as the overview. Depending on which broker
you signed up with, the amount information will vary. At minimum a
detailed stock quote should contain the current price, the gain or
loss in dollar and as a percentage, the current bid and ask price,
the bid and ask size, the high and low, and the volume.
After this baseline, each broker tweaks exactly what is
contained within a detailed stock quote, so to stay on the same
page I recommend going to the TD Ameritrade website and plugging in
the China mobile symbol --
CHL
-- so we can run through this exercise.
Now this information is based on August 2, 2012, after the
close. Most of the information in this stock quote is
self-explanatory such the previous close, today's open, and the
day's range. In the case of the day's range you'll find CHL traded
between $56.52 - $57.21. However, during the day it will provide
you the range from the time of open to the last trade, which is not
necessarily the time you pulled a stock quote. Check the last time
fields during the day; many emerging market ADRs have less
transactions.
A couple of key elements in the stock quote are:
- Implied volatility
- Historical volatility
- Market cap
- EPS
- P/E ratio
- Beta
- Percentage held by institutions
- Short interest
Let tackle the quick and easy ones today and save EPS and P/E
ratios for next Friday, after this weekend's homework.
Implied volatility
is more useful for options traders as it represents the options
market price to express an underlying asset's projected price
movements. At this point the lower and smaller swings the stock
makes the better.
Historical
volatility
is the 21 day running average, representing the 21 days in a month
for trading. A big disconnect between the two should should raise
eyebrows; dig into your homework and see what you turn up. A big
move higher could mean something is amiss.
Beta
represents a stock's volatility in comparison to the S&P 500. A
Beta of 1 or less indicates the stock price is less volatile than
the market as a whole. A beta of greater than 1 means the stock
price is more volatile than the market. Think of beta as your risk
gauge. If you are concerned with sudden drops in price, a beta of
less than 1 indicates the stock will not fall as fast as the
S&P 500. However, the same is true on the upswing.
Short interest
is reported percentage and represents the percentage of investors
who are short the stock. Remember, being short means you're looking
for the stock to move lower, not higher.
Market cap
simply represents the overall value of the company's worth. To
calculate market capitalization, simply multiply the day's price by
shares outstanding.
Percentage held by institution
is also provided in percentage terms and represents the amount of
shares being held by financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs,
J.P. Morgan, or hedge funds.
Next week we will review how to use this stock quote homework to
determine if a company is fundamentally sound, and review EPS and
the P/E ratio.