The stock market is a great alternative in investing your money other than the ordinary bank products like time deposit, treasury bills and bonds. It gives a much higher return on your investment. It is in the form of stocks that represent ownership in a company. As a stockholder, you will have a share in the assets and earnings of a particular company. But, a high yielding investment also poses a higher risk of losing all your money or some of it. Stock investment needs a longer period of time to guarantee you of sure return on your funds.

It is critical that you know how to read the stock market. So how does a beginner in this type of investment understand the strange jargons and figures? The following identifies every key word present in a stock market table.

52W High and Low. It means the lowest and highest prices traded during the last 52 weeks. Trading price of the previous day is not included.

Stock. It shows the list of company names. The name of each company may be followed by a symbol. Absence of a symbol means that stocks are common stock. A symbol "pf" is an example that means preferred stock. Different symbols imply different types of stocks.

Ticker. It is the code of each company in alphabetical form.

Dividend and Yield. It is the amount of dividends paid by the company to its stockholders.

Price Earnings Ratio. This shows the earning potential of a stock computed by dividing the current stock price by the earnings per share from the last four quarters.

Trading Volume. This is the entire number of shares traded on a day.

High and Low. These figures signify the price range at which the stocks were traded during the day. This is the same as the maximum and minimum prices that people have paid for the stock.

Close. It is the last price quoted during the day. A closing price that is less than or more than 5% compared with the previous day means a bold-faced stock. This is not a guarantee that the price would be the same the next day as prices change everyday because of market forces.

Net Change. It refers to the difference between the current value and the closing price of the previous day. A statement about a stock being "up for the day" means the net change was positive.

You would also encounter other terminologies like bull market and bear market in the stock market trading ground. A bull market implies a strong trading condition where investors are confident about their stock choices while a bear market connotes investment is weak and stock prices are falling. Also, a gloomy and negative feeling surround the investors in a bear market. Do not overlook these terms. Spend a significant amount of time to study to learn how to read the stock market.

Now that you have acquired the basic knowledge on what the industry is and how to read the stock market, you can now decide if you still want to invest. The internet could help you determine the company you would like to place and entrust your money.