Finding Market and Investment Information
Stocks
A corporation is owned by a group of investors called stockholders or shareholders. A share of common stock represents a portion of ownership in a company. Stockholders enjoy the privileges of ownership. They share company profits and exercise voting rights in the management of the company. The number of stocks an investor owns determines his/her share of income and control. Stocks are bought and sold daily on the stock market.Stock Exchanges
The stock market is not a literal market, it merely describes the activity of buying and selling shares of corporations. Some trading activity is organized into exchanges. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), the major US exchanges, allow their members to trade stocks in a daily auction. The general public can buy and sell stocks through brokerage firms who have membership on the exchanges.Exchange Listings
Only the stocks of certain companies meeting a variety of requirements may be listed or traded on the respective exchanges. NYSE listing requirements are more rigorous, thus its corporations tend to be larger and more established than those listed by AMEX. There are other regional exchanges in the US, but they represent a very small percentage of the total US stock trade.
Over-the Counter Market
Trade that does not take place in an organized exchange is described as Over-the-Counter (OTC). Newer and smaller firms generally represent the OTC market. The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ) lists the "dealer bids and asks" for a group of OTC stocks on an electronic display. NASDAQ, like the NYSE, has more stringent listing requirements, so its companies tend to be the stronger, more established of the OTC companies.All of the above information has been summarized from the
Encyclopedia of Business. (Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1995).
One-Stop Financial Information on the World Wide Web
The following online financial information resources provide a wide variety of services, such as stock quotes, stock screening, market news and Market Indices.Bridge Information Systems
CBS MarketWatch
Cnnfn
Daily Stocks
E-Line Financials
Invest-O-Rama
Market Guide
S&P 500 Stock Research
Wall Street Research Network
Wall Street Stock Review
Zacks Investors Service
Which Exchanges are my company traded on?
All of the One-stop financial information resources listed above will provide this information. The Exchange web sites below provide a directory of each of their listed companies.NYSE
AMEX
NASDAQ
CBS MarketWatch for OTC stocks
How do I look up my company's ticker symbol?
All public companies are assigned a ticker symbol, an abbreviation or code used to represent the company on the stock market. For example, Xerox Corporation's ticker is XRX. No two companies share the same symbol. The ticker is an effective search tool because it helps avoid confusion between similarly named businesses. In many situations, such as news and exchange reports, the ticker is used rather than the name. Most of the One-Stop financial resources listed above include the ticker symbol. The web sites below provides a comprehensive US and international ticker symbol lookup service.
CBS MarketWatch - Symbol Lookup
Ticker Symbol Lookup - Security APL
Guides to Finding Financial Information on the World Wide Web
The following sites will guide you through the maze of financial information available over the web.FINWeb
Financial Data Finder
NCS Directory
StreetEye
Investment Information in the LibraryStandard and Poors Stock Reports
Value Line Investment Survey
Market and Investment News
The following newspapers are generally very strong in market and investment news. There are certainly many other sources. See Finding Company Information in Newspapers.
Financial Times
New York Times Financial Section
Wall Street Transcript
Wall Street Journal
Historical Financial Information
Consult the following resources when you need to know the past financial performance of your company.Value Line Investment Survey. Provides a ten year statistical summary.
Value Line Investment Survey on Microfiche
Standard and Poor's Stock Reports
Chadwick Investment Group Historical stock prices for some of the largest US companies.
InvestTool Charts Historical stock prices for 10,000 US equities back to 1994.
Stockmaster Quarterly earnings back to 1992. Must use ticker symbol and change lookup from"quote and chart" to "earnings history"