Posted by forex at 6:38 AM
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1. Select a finance page you are comfortable with. The Internet offers close to real-time quotes. Suggested pages include Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance and MSN Money.
2. Search by the stock symbol of the company you want to follow on any of the pages. For example MSFT is Microsoft. If you do not know a company's stock symbol, use the respective search engines for the company's name and stock symbol. You will be provided with the stock symbol and basic stock information. An example search is 'Apple stock symbol.' Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance and MSN Money each provide a search box with 'Get Quote' next to the search box, where you can enter the company's name or symbol
3. Find data you believe is relevant to how you want to invest. Each investor has his own method to investing. Some people give more value to some information over other information. The main data most people look at tends to be the stock's last trade, the stock's 52-week range, P/E Ratio, Earnings Per Share Ratio and Beta. Each site provides definitions of most ratios, along with comparisons between companies and industries. The stock's last trade is the price the stock last sold for. The stock's 52-week range is the stock's highest and lowest selling price during the year. The P/E Ratio shows the price of the stock compared to its earnings from the year. Earnings per share shows how much of the company's earnings would go toward one common share of stock. Beta shows how a company's systematic risk compares to the market.
4. Browse through a company's financial statements. Even if you do not know much about accounting, it is good to get in the practice of being able to read financial statements. Public companies must release an annual audited statement to help protect investors. The income statement shows the revenue and expenses of a company from the year, companies try to increase their net income. The balance sheet shows what the company owns and liabilities it must pay. From the balance sheet, a person can calculate financial ratios such as the current ratio. The current ratio is current assets divided by current liabilities. Current ratio shows a firm's ability to function and pay debt in the short-term over the next year.
5. Record your relevant data. Use a spreadsheet program to track data changes over a period of time by saving information you want to track each time you look up a stock on a financial page. For example, if a person wants to track a company's selling price each week, he would look up the stock on a financial page and log the stock price in the spreadsheet weekly. Depending on your trading methods, you might track changes daily, weekly or monthly. The data from previous periods is available through the recommended sites. It is often an easier reference to track the data on your own.