Stocks and Shares - What is volume representive of and how does it affect share prices?
345755
Volume represents the number of shares traded for the day (or whatever frequency the chart is that you are looking at).\n\nIt affects the share price in a ton of ways. The size, polarity, pattern, and previous days of the volume indicator, combined with the position/pattern of the chart is the main factor. These patterns will display a different combination of greed/fear in every end user. The popular consensus of this feeling is what will motivate both buyers and sellers and ultimately determine direction/speed of the share price.
624934
Here's the start of a good answer regarding 'diluted shares'\n\nQuoting,\n\n“dilution” refers to the effect of adding more shares to the pool of stock that is already trading in the open market. For example, if you own stock in a company with 1 million shares trading at $10 each, and the company decides to issue another 1 million shares, you’re holdings would be “diluted” by those new shares. Since the company hasn’t done anything to increase its value, the stock would drop to $5. It’s not much different than what happens to your savings when the government starts printing too much money."\nhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7477469/
76616
COMMON STOCK:\nSecurities that represent equity ownership in a company. Common shares let an investor vote on such matters as the election of directors. They also give the holder a share in a company's profits via dividend payments or the capital appreciation of the security. Units of ownership of a public corporation with junior status to the claims of secured/unsecured creditors, bondholders and preferred shareholders in the event of liquidation.\n\nPREFERRED STOCK:\nA security that shows ownership in a corporation and gives the holder a claim, prior to the claim of common stockholders, on earnings and also generally on assets in the event of liquidation. Most preferred stock pays a fixed dividend that is paid prior to the common stock dividend, stated in a dollar amount or as a percentage of par value. This stock does not usually carry voting rights. Preferred stock has characteristics of both common stock and debt.
1058093
What's happening is that nothing is happening.  The last quotation I have is $.025 (2 1/2 cents) per share, and (almost) zero volume.  Stockholders are awaiting new news about California prospects.  Just now is "sleepy" time, but hang in there.
468147
You used the example of Microsoft, which is a very actively traded stock with huge volume. \n\nWhat you are suggesting is either arbitrage, or stock manipulation; probably the latter. Surely you aren't mad at Microsoft?\n\nFor the size of this company and number of outstanding shares, it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to move the price of the stock significantly. You would never move it to $1, because everyone knows the stock is worth more than that, and that the company is not going out of business. You could sell a billion dollars of that stock and not cut it in half.\n\nIf you're near a brokerage office, stop by and look at a quote machine and observe the active bids for Microsoft -- there are millions of shares bid at every price level close to the current price. Those are the people that you will have to take out before you move the stock price significantly. \n\nThe floor traders and dealer/brokers and specialists do not literally "set" the stock price; supply and demand does that, and you better believe there's going to be a huge demand for Microsoft at $15 or $20, after you sold your billion dollars of stock, and after you get through the millions of shares quoted at bid. The net effect will be that you lose at least 10% and probably 20% on your foolish endeavor to try and manipulate the price against market forces, when demand comes surging in and drives the price back up.\n\nThat's a cool $200 million loss to you.
637669
Splits make stocks more affordable to small investors but generally don't mean anything. It's like breaking a pencil into 2, you now have 2 pencils but you didn't add any value. You can find out which companies are going to split at Yahoo Finance at http://biz.yahoo.com/c/06/s5.html
180392
They are equivelent. Before you had 1 share of the company's stock. After you have 2 shares. Afterwards the share value, everything else being equal, is 1/2 the share value before. All it is, is a method for a company to lower the value of their stock shares by doubling the number of shares outstanding. There is the perseption among some companies that shares trading in the $30 to $40 range are more attractive to investors than shares trading in the $60 to $80 range. Generally but not always, the company will also raise the cash dividend at the same time.
130134
Other, I used the prices and volumes to guide me when to sell or exit.  For instant, If my stock going up, have a long run, one day the price is decline like 5 percent, the volume is double or higher from the last session. That is a yellow flag for me, and I have to a decision quickly before it decline further.  I usually sell it with no hestitate when that happen.
667301
There's sooooo much poor information here.\n\nWhen you invest in most stocks the Stock Exchange manages things so you are guaranteed to find a buyer if you're selling and guaranteed to find a seller if you're buying.  The large banks are granted favourable trading terms in return for being in the market and quoting a price to take those 200 MSFT shares off your hands.  They can drop the price they're prepared to pay when more people are selling than buying but they commit to being in the market and quoting a price most of the time.\n\nPink Sheets and Over The Counter are basically the same thing (the name Pink Sheets comes from the fact that closing prices were printed and distributed at the end of the trading day on pink paper).  It is a seperate market for stocks not quoted on the main market.  Basically, when you want to buy or sell a stock there is no guarantee there will be anyone prepared to trade with you.  The more popular stocks normally trade reasonably well but there are thousands of stocks on the OTC market that trade no volume for weeks at a time.  Most of the shareholders will be held privately and if no one is prepared to sell you're not going to be able to buy.  If you are able to find a seller you run the risk of paying a large spread (the difference between the buy and sell price).  On the main market the buy or sell price for MSFT will be the same.  On the OTC market the buy price for a stock might be $10 higher than the sell price.\n\nThe biggest danger is that something happens to the stock while you're holding it and you find yourself locked in.  If I buy MSFT I can sell the stock seconds after bad news is announced by going to my PC and logging onto my brokerage account.  If I hold OTC stock I can only sell my stock if there's someone out there prepared to buy.\n\nOTC stocks are not neceessarily up and coming, as with penny stocks choose very carefully.  Stocks quote on the OTC market for a number of reasons, and there are definately some bargains out there.  But it is much much more risky than the main market.
1021121
In theory, a stock's price should be equal to the present value of all of its future cash flows.  Anything that causes the cash flows to get bigger or smaller has an effect on price.  But given that cash flows don't change, the price can still change if the interest rate changes.\n\nLet's look at an example.  Suppose that you have a company that has paid all of its bills for the next year.  In one year, it gets a $100,000,000 payment for sure.  At that time, the payment will be distributed to all owners of the firm & the firm will disolve.  How much is the firm worth?  We know it will be worth $100MM in a year.  What is the right interest rate.  Suppose is it 10%.  Can we find the value of the firm now?  Sure -- it is the amount that if we invest it at 10% it will be worth $100MM in a year.  That is, it is worth $100MM/1.1 or $90,909,090.91 now.  \n\nOK -- what happens if interest rates change.  Perhaps they go up to 11%.  Then the value of our firm changes to $100MM/1.11 = $90,090,090.09 -- losing almost $82K in value.  If rates go down, the value should go up.\n\nNext, let's look at CPI.  This is the rate of inflation.  If it increases, people will think that they need more money to have the same lifestyle in the future.  If they are worried about inflation, they will demand a higher interest rate to compensate them for higher prices in the future.  So, changes in expected inflation change the interest rates, and therfore change stock prices.\n\nWhat about the economic growth rate?  If the economy grows faster than expected, then maybe that $100MM that we thought the company was going to get will be higher.  A higher payment translates into higher stock prices.\n\nAs for employment, it turns out that the employment rate is associated with growth.  If a lot of companies are hiring, then there will be more money spent by the new employees, and there will be more produced by those new employees, so demand for goods goes up.  This causes an increase in the expected profits, and higher stock prices.  It isn't quite so simple, though.  If there are too many people working, then the demand for labor causes higher costs and lower profits, which causes stock prices to decline.
740042
easy see the points on chart where share has traded for longer periods. there points r resistances and supports. if share price is below such a point it is acting resistance. if above its a support.
617718
Stock Market (or stock exchange) is a place where stock (or shares as we call in india) are traded between investors at a particular price that is purely determined by the demand and supply of the shares.\n\nFor example, if the demand of the share is greater than the supply, the price of the share will keep rising until the demand is equal to supply. As a result the price of the share goes up. Alternatively, if the supply of the share is more than the demand, the price of the share falls till it equals demand. \n\nNormally one would want to buy the shares of company that are performing good. This would result in a rise in demand of the shares and the price will start rising. The price will rise until the ivestors feel that the share price correctly co relates with the good performace of the company. Similarly one would try and sell shares of a company that is performing poorly and so the supply will rise. The price will continue to fall till investors feel that the price correctly corelates with the performance.\n\nIt is worth noting that any news that has an effect on the performance of the company will be reflected in the price movement of the share. For example, if the government announces that there is an upward revision in the price of petrol, the most likely gainers will be companies like Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL, ONGC, Reliance etc. Therefore, their stocks (share prices) will start rising. Alternatively if the government announces that there is no revision in the price of petrol even though the price of crude is rising in the international market, the share prices of these companies will be under pressure and will probably fall. \n\nNow a days shares are held in dematerialized or demat (i.e. in electronic form without any paperwork involved) form with a share broker who is registered with the stock exchange. In India, there are two stock exchanges viz - \n\n1) The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)\n2) The National Stock Exchange (NSE)\n\nBoth the exchanges are headquarted in Mumbai. A broker can be a member of either of the two or both.\n\nSensex (Sensitive Index) is an index of the most commonly traded 30 stocks on the BSE. Time to time, the BSE allocates weightage to different stocks that reflect their importance in the stock markets. Take an example of two stocks RELAINCE and TATA POWER where both are included in the Sensex. If the stock price of Reliance goes up by Rs 10 and the stock price of TATA POWER falls by Rs 10, does it mean that they will balance each other? The answer is no. This is becuase the weight of the Reliance Stock is much more than Tata Power. In such a case the rise in the Reliance Stock will out weigh the loss in Tata Power's stock and the Sensex will rise (assuming other stocks remain where they are). It is to be noted that the sensex will either move upwards or downwards only the performace of these 30 stocks. Since the general mood of the market is reflected by the movement in the Sensex, it reamins in the news all the time.\n\nPlease note that this explanation is a very simple explanation on the movement in the Indian Stock Market. There may be many other factors that determine the demand and supply of shares.\n\nHope one finds this information useful.
160498
In the stock market.\n\nVolume rate of change.\nPrice rate of change.\n\nBoth very good indicators of coming change to a stock.
661627
A stock market is how much a companies shares are worth at the time. Low means that they are not selling for a lot, high means that one shares costs more than it did previously. \n\nThese fluctuations are based on events going on in the company and how much people are willing to support them. Often stocks drop when people either see their stocks are worth more and want the money at the time or the company is having problems.\n\nHigh often occurs when a new product has been developed and people want in on the profits that company is gaining.
10630
PEG refers to the P/E ratio (price divided earnings per share) divided by the projected earnings growth rate of the company.\nExample:  A company has a stock price of $10, earnings per share of $0.50 and a project earnings growth of 30%.  It's P/E ratio would be 20 (10/.5) and the PEG ratio would be 0.66 (20/30).\nNow imagine that the company had a projected earnings growth rate of 5%.  The resulting PEG ratio  would be 4.0 (20/5).\nInvestors often use the benchmarks of 1.0 or 1.5 as an indicator of a stock's valuation (expensive v. cheap).  I would argue that 1.0 is for low-growth companies and 1.5 for high-growth companies.  But, you can make your own judgements.\nBasically the PEG ratio allows investors to compare the price they're paying in relation to future earnings growth across different stocks.  All else being equal, you want to buy a stock with a lower PEG ratio because it means you're paying less for the same future earnings power.  But of course, all other things are not equal when comparing different companies, so you must consider all other relevant factors when making a decision.
223896
If it's a public company, then it's going to be stock price. Generally, coporate restructuring, layoffs, and the like are done to bring up the stock price. Shareholders like that. Also too you will see corporate restructuring through mergers and acquisitions to reduce overlap (e.g. HR departments, accounts payable departments, etc).
460032
both the nasdaq and dow are summations of many companies' stocks. the dow is composed of about 30 big companies and is the best index for the overall stock market. the nasdaq is a couple hundred successful companies. \n\nbasically, each company sells equity in the form of stocks. owning a share of stock means that you own a small piece of the company and are entitled to vote for the managers and receive dividends should the company decide to pay them.