Comments on: Understanding Stock Quotes

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:54:19 +0000

Thank You besides dividends I’ve been looking for someplace to find the “Code” to the rest of the Common Stock information 8 )

By: Jules

Jules — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:03:06 +0000

Knew the rest but wasn’t sure about the yield, thanks

By: missy

missy — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:28:01 +0000

i have no idea of whats going on…finance is not my thing but im doing this for a class assignment!!!!

By: web design

web design — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:49:21 +0000

Very helpful for a person just getting into the stock market, thank you.

By: Facebook User

Facebook User — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:00:37 +0000

Well done.
A quibble. You wrote: “If a stock has a beta of 1.4, in theory it is 40% more volatile than the rest of the market.”

There is nothing theoretical about a stock being 40% more volatile than the market. It is rather, historically 40% more risky than general market risk. As everyone ought to know, past results do not guarantee future returns.

Quibble done, so now a warning:
Forward P/E is as useful as the earnings estimate it is based on. Since earnings estimates come from analysts who are talking to the CEO or the CFO of the company and who work at investment banks, these estimates are prone to three sorts of error… 1- Manipulation by the company, 2- Perverse incentives at the i-bank, 3- bad model by the analyst. Add to that a general error rate. Do not consider F P/E without marking it against P/E (which may have manipulated earnings in it, but is less error prone) and some measure of historical P/E. If the future looks better than the past, it might be useful to understand why.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:42:06 +0000

Thanks! This is very help! Well, except for the description of the word “shares” which uses the word “share” in the definition (ha, ha).

I think “shares” could be easily understood as meaning “units of ownership”.

Anyways- thanks for the refresher!