Stock Market Prices

Investors look at stock market prices to determine which stocks will make them the most money in the least amount of time. It would be an investor's dream to buy up stock at $5 a share and sell it at $1000 a share in just a few months. There would be a mad dash for deals like that, if the profits were going to be even half or a quarter of that. The point of investing in the stock market is to make money.

Stock market prices for shares in a company fluctuate. If the company is successful, the stock prices in that company rise. In spite of the economy many companies are thriving; however, there are also companies that have taken a huge hit from the economy and the stock market prices in those companies may decrease. If you are an investor, you want to know how well a company will perform in the future, before you sink a lot of money into that company's stock. It is possible that a company can do well, yet the prices of stock in the company decreases. The companies don't determine what the stock prices will be; the stock market determines what a company's value is worth. The price of stock isn't determined by its value today; the price is determined by how the market determines the expected performance of a company in the future. A company could be doing not so well right now, but could be expected to do very well in the future, and the stock market prices for shares in that company would go up.

A company's stock market prices change instantaneously. If you were to search out the stock market prices for a company on a given day, you could see the stock price ranges for that particular day. For instance, on October 23, 2009, stock market prices for stock in Google went from $551.20 to $557.89. Based on the reports of the price at the last trade, and the opening price, you can make a bid for the number of shares you want to buy.

Most investors buy stock in hundreds of shares. However, it is possible to buy just one share of stock, if you want to. You might want to buy one share of Google, or McDonalds, or Starbucks stock as a present for someone. You may even want to buy stock one share at a time for yourself. Buying one share at a time would be a good way to build your portfolio when you don't have a lot of money to spend. You can go to a website, such as One Share and other websites, and buy just one share if you want to. You just have to follow the steps and pay the money for the share.