So, What About the Internet?

Now that you've mastered deciphering printed stock tables, you'll be a whiz at making sense of the stock information that appears online.

Just like newspapers, financial web sites all deliver stock quotes a bit differently. But unlike newspapers, which can only be as up-to-date as yesterday, web sites can update information continuously throughout the day. Take a look at this example:

Unlike a newspaper that has space constraints, a web site has a great deal more room to "spread out" and give the user additional information, such as breaking news, charts, company research, and so forth.

But wait, there's more! A stock ticker can also be as close as your TV, your computer, or on big buildings in the middle of Times Square in New York City. Maybe you've seen that scrolling line of letters and numbers that inches its way across the bottom of the screen. (This high-tech ticker mimics how the stock tickers back in the day of telegraphs looked.)

These tickers can be seen on the cable channel CNBC as well as on business programs such as "Nightly Business News" on PBS. Real-time stock tickers can also be downloaded, for a fee, to your computer. Because there are thousands and thousands of companies whose stocks are traded everyday, not every stock can be included on these tickers.

You're such an expert now that you can figure out what information is being displayed. One important thing to know: Green means the price is up, and red means it's down.