Prices of stocks move up and down all the time. There are different ways to describe historic and current stock prices.
Last/current
As in its name, the last/current price is the most recent price at which a stock was traded.
Open
The opening stock price is the first price the stock trades at during the day. This price does not have to be the same as the previous day’s close – a stock can “gap-up” or “gap-down.”
Close
The closing price is the last price the stock trades at during the day, before the exchange closes.
Bid/Ask
The bid is the highest price at which buyers are willing to purchase the stock. The ask is the lowest price at which sellers are willing to sell the stock. The difference between the bid and ask is the “spread.” This topic can be a little complicated, so we may cover it in a future post.
Day’s Range
The day’s range is the total range of prices the stock has traded at throughout the day – lowest to highest.
52 Week Range
The 52 week range is the total range of prices the stock has traded at throughout the last year – lowest to highest.
Example
Here is a screenshot of a quote for Ford Motor Company (ticker symbol = F) from Yahoo Finance:
You can see most of the different prices defined above. The previous close was 12.00 a share. The open was 12.06. The bid is 12.16. The ask is 12.19. The day’s range was 11.84 to 12.18. The 52 week range was 10.61 to 16.68.
If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future posts, please let me know
I hope you found this post helpful and educational. If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future posts, please let me know. You can reach me directly via email at crawford@ulmerfinancial.com.
Comments