Get Stock Quotes
FAQs
Get Stock Quotes
To get a quote on a stock, mutual fund or other supported security, simply type a ticker symbol into the text box located in the top left corner of the AOL® Money& Finance page, then click the Go button. If you don't know the ticker symbol of the security you're interested in, you can search for it using the Symbol Lookup utility.
On the first line, you will find the name of the stock or security, followed by the ticker symbol in parenthesis.
On the second line, there are four pieces of key information:
- Last Price. This is the last price at which the stock was traded and the price at which you might buy or sell the stock. Note that these prices are delayed which means that the data you are viewing is at least 15 or 20 minutes old. Before you make any trade or investment decision, you should always contact your broker or financial advisor to confirm the most recent price in real-time. Prices reported from the New York Stock Exchange are delayed by at least 20 minutes. Prices reported from the NASDAQ or American Stock Exchange are delayed by at least 15 minutes.
- Up, Down or Unchanged. You will usually see an arrow following Last Price. A red arrow pointing down indicates that a given security is trading lower today than in the previous market session. A green arrow means that the stock is trading higher today than in the previous market session. If you don't see an arrow at all, the issue is unchanged, and is trading at the same price as it was in the previous market session.
- Net Change. The third data point appearing after the up/down indicator is Net Change. This figure represents the difference between the price at which the stock is trading currently and the last price at which the stock traded in the previous market session. For example, if the last price at which a stock was traded on Monday was 10, and the stock is trading at 15 on a Tuesday, the Net Change would be 5. The net change figure is represented in colored text corresponding to the up/down arrow. If net change is positive, the number will appear in green text. If the net change is negative, the number will appear in red text. If net change is zero, the stock is unchanged, and text will be black or plain.
- Percentage Change. The fourth and final data point is percentage change. This figure is displayed in parenthesis to make it easier to read. As the name suggests, this data point tells you the percentage by which the price of a security has changed from the previous market session. This figure is also displayed in colored text corresponding to the up/down indicator.
Note: There are many different types of securities for which you might request a quote, including mutual funds, market indices or money market funds. Each type of security has a unique data layout. Although it may be similar to a stock quote, each security is different.
On the final line of a stock quote you will see the message"Quote data provided by ComStock." ComStock is the company that provides quote data to AOL. To learn more about Comstock, please visit their Web site http://www.comstock-interactivedata.com.
Back to Top
FAQs
Quote & News
Detailed Quotes
The Chart View
The Profile Report
The Performance View
The Fundamentals Report
Back to Top
Quote & News
This is the default view and includes the broadest overview of information about a particular security. Within this view you'll see:
- A basic delayed quote from the major U.S., UK, and Canadian exchanges
- An intra-day chart showing the price movements and trends for the day
- A summary of top news, feature, press release headlines, and message board posts
Note: For real-time quotes please subscribe to AOL Real-Time Streaming Quotes from eSignal.
Back to FAQs
Detailed Quotes
The detailed quote view is designed to provide you with in depth quote information such as:
- 52 week trading range
- Number of shares outstanding
- Market capitalization
- 30-Day average trading volume
- P/E Ratio
- Earnings per share
Back to FAQs
The Chart View
The Chart view is a full-featured interactive stock charting tool. Here are just a few of the many useful things you can do with this feature:
- Click through charts that show the performance of a security over the past 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, Year-to-Date, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years
- Build a chart plotting the performance of a stock over a specific time range that you specify (for example, Show me the performance of AMZN from March 1st, 2000 through today)
- Compare multiple stocks and indices in a single image
- Overlay any stock chart with a moving average
- Choose from a variety of chart styles, including Line, High/Low/Open/Close, Bar and Candlestick
- Plot stock performance against daily trading volume
- Plot stock splits and dividend distributions
Still looking for more charting horsepower? Charting enthusiasts are encouraged to try free Interactive Charting from Prophet.net, the site Barron's and Forbes named best charts on the web.
Back to FAQs
The Profile Report
The Profile report gives a general overview of the company or fund that interests you. Company details are provided by our partner Hoover's™ Online, the Business Information Authority. Fund overview data is provided by Morningstar® ( http://www.morningstar.com/), the definitive source for mutual fund information.
For stocks, you'll find key data points such as:
- Company address, telephone number and web site
- A description of the company's business and a list of key competitors
- A list of key subsidiaries
- A list of key managers and other critical personnel
For mutual funds, you'll find a wealth of information, including:
- An overview of the fund and a description of the fund's objectives
- The name of the fund manager, and the length of time he or she has managed the fund
- Year-to-date and total return since inception
- The Morningstar rating
Back to FAQs
The Performance View
The Performance view provides a detailed account of company earnings or mutual fund returns. Earnings data is provided by First Call ( http://www.thomson.com/financial/fi_investmgr.jsp), a Thomson™ Financial Company. Data on mutual fund returns is provided by Morningstar.
For companies you will find earnings estimates for this quarter, next quarter, this fiscal year and the next fiscal year. In addition, you'll find links to company specific reports such as:
- Broker recommendations
- Peer and industry comparisons
- An audio archive of earnings conference calls
- Other unique reports, such as Performance Following Surprise
For mutual funds, you'll find historical data showing fund returns for the following time periods:
- Year-to-date
- 1 year
- 3 year
- 5 year
- 10 year
Back to FAQs
The Fundamentals Report
The Fundamentals report goes behind the numbers to provide you with the analytics you need to make your own decision about the value of a potential investment.
A comprehensive listing of company key ratios and links to the latest financials are available, including:
- Balance Sheet
- Income Statement
- Cash Flows
- SEC Filings
For mutual funds, you'll find a detailed breakdown of the assets and holdings managed by the fund.
Back to Top
