Introduction
Quote of a stock is the price of such stock or share whether or not openly available in the stock market. But more often, the price of the stock or quote is quoted on a stock exchange. You can get quotes for equity as well as the commodities.
It is an essential investment guide or indicator for an investor. It helps him to decide whether or not he must invest in or sell that stock at the given point of time. Therefore, it influences both the buying and selling decision of a trader.
Understanding Quote
A basic quote for a particular stock gives information about the asking price and bid price, the last traded price and volume traded in that stock. Quotes are usually a part of the technical analysis of the stock. Notably, an intra-day trader operates on the stock exchange just with the price differences during the day and hence, price quotes become increasingly important for them to leverage.
The quote is often displayed as supplemental information. It can be the high price and low price of a stock for a trading day and in turn, the change in the value. A quote can be shown at different intervals of the time, such as hourly, daily, weekly and monthly intervals.
The quote may show the change in the value of the security as compared to the previous day's closing price or even the day's opening price. The difference in the prices can be represented in percentage terms, and it will conclusively reveal the increase or decrease in the market value of security or stock.
Factors to consider before you invest
Several factors can influence quotes of stocks. The stock exchange in India is stable and regulated by the SEBI. However, the price of the shares is primarily affected on a real-time basis during any trading day. It depends upon the buying and selling activities, the trade volume of the stock, fundamentals of the stock such as earnings per share for a given fiscal year, bonus payout, the beta of the stock to measure the stock's risk.
Investors can conveniently access stock quotes real-time online or on mobile devices as against the conventional print media. Many internet portals and websites offer delayed stock quotes at zero charges.
