Ever wonder how to make sense of TV stock tickers, where you might see something like "PEP10.000s35.38"?
In this case, the tape is telling you that 10,000 shares of PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) have traded at a price of $35.38. For trades of 10,000 or more, the comma is changed to a period. If fewer than 10,000 shares are traded, the number is rounded to the nearest hundred and the last two zeros are removed. So PEP 9s35.38 means 900 shares traded at a price of $35.38 per share. If no number of shares is indicated, it means that it's a "round lot" of 100 shares or an "odd lot" rounded to 100. (Please remember that I didn't make up this logic -- I'm just trying to explain it.)
Knowing what companies are tied to each ticker symbol is another matter. To some degree, you'll likely just grow more familiar with various firms' ticker symbols over time, as you read about them. Many are somewhat intuitive, such as Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), IBM (NYSE:IBM), and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), while others will take a little getting used to, like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV).
You can look up the ticker symbols for companies that interest you right here in Fooldom, and you can research those firms in our Quotes and Data area.
Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.
