Poster: How to Read Stock Tables
1. One thing I learned was the yield or rate of return. This aspect of the stock table shows a percent. You
get this number by dividing the annual dividends by the current price of the stock.
2. Another thing I learned was the Sales 100s. The stock tables also show you the amount of stocks that
changed hands the previous day in 100s.
Historical Data
1. The New York Stock Exchanged was started on May 17, 1792 by twenty-four brokers. That means the
NYSE has been around for over 200 years.
2. The first billion share day was on October 28, 1997. This surprises me because it took over two
hundred years for the NYSE to have a billion share day while it took the exchange nearly a 100 years to
have a million share day.
Guide: Chapter One
1. More than 90 million Americans own shares of stock. Americans own stocks through individual
investments or through mutual funds. They also participate in investments through retirement funds,
insurance companies, universities and banks.
2. The NYSE is the world’s largest and most liquid cash equities exchange. There are more than 2,600
operating companies on the exchange and there are over 450 companies which are from outside the
company.
Guide: Chapter Two
1. For the most par there are two types of people who hold trading licenses, floor brokers or specialists.
Floor brokers represent the public order to buy or sell shares and work to get their customers the best
prices. While specialist who is a market professional that acts as a contact point between brokers with
orders to buy shares and other brokers with orders to sell shares.
2. SuperDOT or the Designated Order Turnaround System handles more than 95% of the orders to buy
or sell stock that go to the specialist’s workstation directly at the trading post.
Guide: Chapter Three
1. The SEC was created by the U.S. Congress in 1934. The group was set up to protect investors, the
health of the financial system and the integrity of the capital-formation process. The group monitors
the securities industry and enforces penalties against those that violate the industry’s regulations.
2. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation was set up to protect investors from losing everything
when their brokerage firm encounters financial difficulties and goes out of business. This corporation
covers losses up to $500,000 per customer.