Check Stock Quotes

For convenience, it's hard to beat the Internet for checking on more-or-less up-to-the-minute stock quotes. Most sites update throughout the day and provide additional information, news, charting, research, forums and other tools you can use whenever you're checking stock quotes and calculating your next moves.

Certain sites offer free real-time stock data - with no sign-in requirement - from the BATS Trading network, an electronic stock exchange that handles roughly 10% of the entire stock market trading volume in the United States. During market hours, you'll find the real-time data located adjacent to the 15-minute-delayed data from the exchanges.

While the prices shown can be a useful indictor of current price action when checking stock quotes, it's important to remember that prices on BATS may not mirror those shown for the same commodity on other stock exchanges at the exact same instant. Most stocks are traded on several exchanges or ECNs (electronic communications networks), generally with tiny variations in price on each.

Most of us are familiar with Microsoft Excel as a program for calculation and data storage. Not so widely known is its ability to import detailed stock quotes directly into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Many sites allow you to get refreshable stock quote data in Microsoft Excel, usually by installing a simple software download.

Different companies offer different functions for Excel. The MSN StockQuote, for instance, returns either a company's stock price or another piece of stock information you specify, such as the high, low, ask, bid, or closing price. And the function can also be refreshed to get the latest information.

Perhaps most innovative currently are those sites offering stock quote plugins. These permit bloggers to display in-line stock quotes on their personal blogs. If you're an investor and have your own blog, you've got the world as your stage. You can display your stock market savvy, backed up by continuously cycling stream of stock market quotes. Most stock quotes update live, without a page refresh, plus the plugin inserts the live quote automatically when you publish your post. You can usually choose which terms you'd like to include a quote for, and the plugin supports more than just equities. Look for commodities prices, currencies, indexes, and key rates, as well as other data important to investors.