Desktop Stock Ticker

The 3 best Desktop Stock Ticker

Stock Ticker Application Bar is a desktop stock ticker which continuously retrieves stock quotes. The stock is a quite simple tape stock ticker that can be placed at the bottom or at the top of your screen. It can be configured to display quotes of predefined list of stock and securities symbols in the form of a scrolling message. It can display quotes for up to 201 stocks, bonds and other securities, manually or automatically updating the data, it has user defined screen positioning, scrolling speed, and fonts selection. The configuration includes top and bottom price visuals and sound alarms. It is integrated with financial research website www.quotelinks.com. A built in symbol lookup feature gives you an access to a database of several thousands securities listed on NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX.
All in all a very useful and highly configurable desktop stock ticker.
The ticker is shareware and free to try.

Stock Market Quotes Ticker is another ideal scrolling desktop ticker tape with witch you can easily monitor real-time stock quotes from Yahoo Financial section. This ticker displays a very eye-catching led display which you can customize in quite many ways.
The ticker is shareware and free to try.


WorldFlash News Ticker Gold is much more than just a desktop stock ticker. As the publisher describes it: “a personal news and information agent”. You can choose among more than 220 RSS feeds, ranging from stock quotes, latest headlines and weather. You can also use RSS to track blogs, keyword topics, industries, companies, auctions, job listings and more.
You can setup stock price alerts and keywords based news monitoring, which is quite a handy feature. On top of that you can read your email from more than 10 accounts.
The WorldFlash News Ticker Gold is a highly configurable desktop stock ticker (and really so much more), and the price is very reasonable $45.
The ticker comes with a 45 day trial period.

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The best 3 Free Desktop Stock Tickers

With so many different free desktop stock tickers to choose from it can be a tough call to pick which one to use. In this post I’ll go through three of them.

  • From Stress Free Trading: Desktop US Stock Ticker allows you to have real time stock quotes (since it is a real time stock ticker)streaming displayed on the top portion of your screen as you work (or play). You may choose the number of U.S. stock symbols that you wish to see streaming across your screen - there is no maximum number of streams you can have. You can also adjust the scroll speed to fit your preferences. A great free stock ticker.
    This desktop stock ticker is free and runs on Windows XP.
  • Free Stock Ticker from FreeDesktopTools is a lean, mean, stock ticking machine. The ticker receives stock quotes in near real time and can be placed anywhere on your desktop. The ticker can be adjusted in width. Any stock listed in any public stock exchange and which can be found in the Yahoo! Finance section can be added the ticker. The ticker uses very little ram andcpu power.
    The Desktop Stock Ticker is free and runs on Windows XP.
  • Free Desktop Stock Ticker from Yahoo! Widgets. The Desktop Stock Ticker from Yahoo! is part of the widget 4 installation package, but it can be downloaded from the Yahoo! widget page. It is a simple and very straightforward ticker that shows the stock of your choice with up to 20 minutes delay. It integrates (of course) beautifully with Yahoo! Finance, and a click on the stock brings you to the corresponding financial information page.
    The Desktop Ticker is free and runs on Windows XP.

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Get your Free Desktop Stock Ticker today!

Stock tickers are everywhere! You see them in the Finance Section of all major TV networks, running in the top or bottom of the screen. Every online trading company has one. The benefit of a real time stock ticker are that you get a quick overview of stock prices in a very intuitive format. And you can get your own desktop stock ticker.
There are so many different stock tickers, each with their own characteristics, but they also share a lot of features. The most common features are the company symbol, the value of the companies shares, and the direction in which the stock price is moving.

As mentioned, there are many different ticker software available for your desktop, so you too can have a tape stock ticker running on your computer. Most desktop stock tickers are very small applications, that does not use a lot of RAM or CPU, so you can continue your work. Often the stock tickers can be configured to alert you if the price of a chosen stock move outside a predefined area or the stock price changes rapidly. The desktop stock tickers can be downloaded from many of the online stock trading companies. Since the tickers often are very small applications, the download and installation is quick and easy done.

Most free desktop stock tickers displays the stock prices in “near real-time”, meaning that the prices are delayed - most often 15 to 20 minutes. If you are a customer with an online stock trading company however, you can often get real-time prices with a real time stock ticker - this is obviously a great advantage, especially if you are a day trader, who buys and sells often the same shares though out the day. In this case you need to know the exact price, since you make your money on very small movements. If you are a long term investor the delayed prices are of less importance.

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The Secret of Stock Market Trading

When watching the financial news on television or reading about stock market news, you have surely come across terms like “stock quotes“, “stock market”, “trading”, “desktop stock ticker” and similar. What does these terms mean and more important: “why are they important to you?” In the following I’ll try to explain some of the common terms and take a look at some of the tools available for stock market trading, especially the free desktop stock ticker and the real time stock ticker.

The Stock Market is the market place in which stocks are bought and sold. Basically stock refer to the capital raised by companies by means of sharing out the company to investors. The shares or stocks are traded like any othercommodity like gold, oil, wheat, rice and so on. The market place itself may be physical or virtual (when trading online) and is also called the Stock Exchange.

The process of trading

Buying and selling stocks are like any other business deal - one person sells a stock and another person buys it. Originally buyers and sellers met in the stock exchanges and agreed on a price of a given stock. This took place on the trading floor and it still does - this is what is shown on TV when reporting from the stock markets. Traders are are shouting out their offers and bids - this is called “open outcry”. However now a days most of the trading takes place online.

Trading stocks online

Online trading of stocks has taken place for a very long time, but with the arrival and growing popularity of the Internet, everyone with an Internet connection can trade stocks within their own home if they so pleases. One of the most essential tools for the private investor is the desktop stock ticker. The desktop stock ticker is similar to the stock ticker seen on the financial channels, where stock prices are shown.

Benefits of online stock market trading

There are many benefits of trading stock online. Choosing where and when to trade are two obvious benefits, and by the aid of the free desktop stock ticker you can easily pick the right time to buy a given stock. Another benefit of online stock trading are the trading costs; when you do all the trading yourself you save the fee to the broker.

Disadvantages of Online Stock Market Trading

Trading stock online has a disadvantage compared to Forex trading as it has much lower leverage - this means that profits are lower. Short selling stocks are not that easy, which means that you have to wait for some time for the stock to go up.

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Finding The Best Real Time Stock Ticker

What Is A REAL TIME STOCK TICKER?

Normally when you see stock quotes online, the stock quotes are delayed by 15 minutes at a minimum.
This is due to rules on redistribution of stock quotes from the various stock exchanges. Often these quotes are called near-real time stock quotes.

Use the desktop stock ticker every day

Almost every free stock ticker and desktop stock ticker are near real time stock tickers, but there are few live stock ticker that claims to provide real time stock quotes for free.
However, these free stock tickers are usually not reliable and should be avoided.

Real-time stock quotes are on the other hand updated immediately after there has been a change (for example a trade, changes in bidding / tendering, etc.). As mentioned above, the real time stock ticker does not come free, but there are ways to get you real time stock quotes for free. Almost every stock broker firm has a free stock ticker or a free desktop stock ticker that provides real time quotes. All you have to do is sign up for their services.

What is Streaming?
Streaming means that the stock market ticker tape, stock lists and your portfolio is automatically updated directly in your browser - you do not have to click on the “Update” to see the share price in real time.
Should the rate change will cost upwards flashing green for a short time. Amend the price down, it will blink red.
In your portfolio is calculated gains by both share and the total value of your portfolio automatically.

One popular stock market ticker tape is the bse ticker. This is a real time stock ticker and a desktop stock ticker that brings you online stock ticker quotes. It is a live stock ticker but not a free stock ticker.

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How to Find the Best Online Stock Trading Companies

How to buy stocks online?

If you are considering day trading in stocks, you will want to find the best online stock trading company. But what should you look for in a online stock trading company? The following post will try to help you choose the best stock trading company for you.

Obviously you should look at the hard facts, like fees and interests, but it is also important that you visit the site and get a “feel” for it and the trading tool they offer - there really is a big difference.

Remember that many of the stock trading sites will let you open a demo account, and you can get an idea of how the real thing works and how to buy stocks online.

Fees

It is important to pay attention to the fee structure and how the fees work with your trading style. A day trader will want the lowest fees possible, but an infrequent trader should look for maintenance or inactivity fees. But remember that the stock trading company needs to earn their money somewhere - and if they offer very low or no fees for trading stocks, they definitely charge more for other services.

Personal advice

If you are a beginner or you just need some personal stock trading advice, be sure to check if your trading company offers this service, and what they charge you for it.

Here are some of the best online stock trading sites you should take a look at:

Charles Schwab

Schwab is really the king of discount trading and is continuing this tradition to its online trading services - although it is looking more like a traditional brokerage all the time. Schwab is offering their own stock and market research and clients can work with an investment advisor or Schwab will manage their account for them. Schwab offers a clear, easy-to-use screen providing everything you need to make the most of your trades

Fidelity

When ranking online stock brokers, Fidelity shows up at the top or near the top almost every time. They are not the cheapest stock broker, but their customer satisfaction is one of the highest in the business. Fidelity is also known for its extensive research and investors and traders can talk to advisers face-to-face at one of the many Fidelity investment centers.

E*Trade

E*Trade is know for its huge range of trading offerings, also including banking and mutual funds. E*Trade has merged with quite a few other trading firms and is now a big player in the online stock trading market. Like most of their competitors, the most active traders get lower rates on their trades.

Firstrade

Consolidating your investment activity in one account is one of the biggest advantages of a brokerage account, thereby cutting down on the paperwork. Firstrade recently topped a survey by Kiplinger as being the online stock trading broker offering the most no-load mutual funds without a transaction fee.

Scottrade

Another company with very high customer satisfaction is Scottrade. Their commissions are quite low and most transactions are processed quickly and easy.

Most of the stock trading companies offers free desktop stock tickers when signing up. Also note that not all stock trading companies offers online option trading or online future trading, so if that is something you plan to do, you should make sure they do.

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Use your desktop stock ticker and go for a long-term strategy

How to make investments in 2009 if you want a reasonable return on your money? The answer is: Think beyond one year - and invest in shares. The yield on a single year can vary extremely, which we just have witnessed, but during several years’ time there is a very good chance of a decent return on equities.

Historical records from the U.S. shows that the stock index S & P 500 on average, delivered a return of 11.5 percent a year (including dividends. But the index can deliver extreme fluctuations on a yearly basis, which is why desktop stock tickers might not be the best tool when you go for a long term investment strategy.

Historically, there are a 60 percent chance that returns on a stock fluctuates between minus 6 and plus 31 percent in one year, statistics shows from the U.S.. This also means that there is a relatively high probability that the returns are more extreme - in either direction.

There is no golden method to predict when the extremes occur. Hence the best advice to try to make qualified assessments prior to investment and operating long-term if the strategy is to seek a stable and reasonable return.

Fluctuations is narrow over longer periods, shows historical data for S & P 500 index. Thus, the typical annual fluctuation in a 10-year period of between 6.6 and 16.5 per cent. in return. While the annual fluctuations in returns over a 20-year period is typically between 7.8 and 14.7 per cent.

It should be emphasized that there are obviously periods of 10 and 20 years which fall outside the above figures. But the point is, based on historical data from S & P 500, that with a 10 - or 20-year investment horizon in shares, there is a good probability of a good and stable returns. So thinking beyond 2009 is a good strategy.

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Tempting Targets: 5 Stocks Priced for a Takeover

Companies don’t seem interested in buying rivals at the moment, despite the comparatively low prices they could pay for them. That bodes poorly for stock tickers in general, but investors can still use the math of takeover pros to find bargains.

U.S. shares are 27% cheaper than a year ago, even after climbing 15% in the second quarter. During the first half, though, the value of announced acquisitions in the U.S. fell 45% from a year earlier, according to data provider Dealogic. TrimTabs, an investment research group, calls the second quarter the most bearish it has seen since it started tracking data in 1995, in terms of companies’ zeal for selling new shares to the public and their reluctance to spend cash to buy either their shares or entire companies.

Investors should read that as a sign of stock ticker-market pessimism among company managers, which signals poor market returns to come, according to TrimTabs. Perhaps that makes now a good time to raise cash, or at least trade pricey stock tickers for cheap ones. To the latter end, I’ve listed five companies below that corporate suitors might think are good deals right now, if they weren’t so reluctant to spend. Some of the traits that can make a company a potential takeover target can also make it a promising stock ticker. Chief among them is a modest price.

The companies have, in the parlance of merger and acquisition pros, low EV/Ebitda ratios. EV is enterprise value, which is what an investor would pay to buy a company in its entirety and repay all of its debt. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It’s a measure of underlying profit potential that allows for tidy comparisons of companies. A low EV/Ebitda ratio, then, means a company had a modest takeover price relative to its earnings potential. The companies on my list also generate free cash, something acquiring firms like to see.

BJ’s Wholesale Club (BJ) shares have climbed 31% over the past five years, vs. an 18% decline for the S&P 500. They now sell for 13 times forward earnings, vs. more than 16 times earnings for the index. Sales and profits for BJ’s are rising at the moment, as consumers forsake full-price shops for discount clubs. The company has low profit margins relative to peers like Costco (COST), but also increasing margins, which together suggest both improvement and room for more of it.

Dell (DELL) has suffered sharp sales declines of late, but it has reduced corporate expenses and still produces impressive returns on equity, the mark of an efficient company. In the absence of a global economic recovery, the chief appeal of the stock ticker for investors is a low price. Subtracting the company’s sizable cash balance from its stock ticker price, shares go for about 10 times forward earnings.

Listed below are details on these two companies and three others.

Screen Survivors
Company Ticker Industry Curr. Price EV/Ebitda Return on Equity (%) Dividend Yield (%)
Data as of July 1, 2009
Dell DELL Personal Computers 13.73 5.60 46.9 n/a
Sherwin-Williams SHW Chemicals 53.75 6.86 32.0 2.64
Eastman Chemical EMN Chemicals 37.90 5.63 14.1 4.64
BJ’s Wholesale Club BJ Discount Stores 32.23 5.99 14.8 n/a
Weis Markets WMK Grocery Stores 33.52 5.93 8.2 3.46

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5 Stocks Yielding 4% — or More

Dividends are in the dumps. For 11 years ended 2007, the S&P 500 carried a yield of less than 2% compared with a historic average for stock tickers of closer to 5%. Share prices have plunged since 2007, so the index’s yield should have fattened to 3% or so. Instead, it’s on its way to dipping below 2% thanks to financially distressed companies that have slashed payments. S&P reckons dividends this year will hit their lowest percentage of profits since 1938.

That said, hundreds of companies pay at least 4% at the moment. That’s about double the average rate offered by banks on one-year certificates of deposit. Of course, CDs offer a guarantee of principal protection, but they come with some unwanted guarantees, too. They are guaranteed not to increase in value beyond their interest payments. The payments themselves are guaranteed not to grow during the life of the CD. If inflation picks up, long-term CDs are almost guaranteed to fall behind in their ability to protect investors’ buying power.

A 4% dividend yield, by contrast, can grow over time, offers the potential of capital gains on the side and can help protect against inflation. Of course, all of this depends on the company paying the dividend, and its prospects for prosperity in coming years. Below are five financially strong companies paying more than 4%. Each has a modest valuation and relatively stable sales.

Philip Morris International (PM) sells Marlboro and other top cigarette brands in 160 countries outside the U.S. The stock ticker is more expensive than its domestic sibling, Altria (MO), at 14 times forward earnings versus 9. The International company also comes with a smaller dividend: 5.1%, compared with 7.8% for the American company. But those numbers still compare favorably with the broad stock ticker market, and Philip Morris International has limited exposure to lawsuits and better growth prospects than the U.S. tobacco industry.

ConocoPhilips (COP) stock ticker trades at less than half its price of a year ago, when Warren Buffett was loading up on shares for his investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). It’s by no means the top performer in the oil and gas industry. Analysts expect the company’s production to flatten for the next few years after an increase of 3% or so this year. To help make up for its weak production outlook, Conoco has been an aggressive acquirer. As a result its debt since 2005 has increased from 19% of capital to 34%. That’s a manageable sum, but it reduces the portion of the company’s cash flow that’s free to be put toward new drilling. All that said, Conoco sells for less than 13 times this year’s pitiful earnings forecast and less than 7 times what Wall Street figures the company might earn next year. Relative to the company’s profits, its 4.5% dividend yield looks plenty affordable.

Will Verizon (VZ) get the iPhone next year, once Apple’s exclusivity pact with AT&T (T) runs out? There’s a good chance, judging by Apple’s recent announcement that long-awaited data features for its iPhone are now available through most carriers world-wide, but won’t be available until later this year through AT&T. The real reason to like Verizon isn’t just that it provides the least-bad cellphone service of a sloppy bunch, but that its stock ticker comes with one of the biggest, affordable dividend yields around: almost 6%. Sales are expected to increase 11% this year, as its flourishing wireless business more than makes up for withering landline accounts.

Have a look if you like at details on these and the other two high-yielders below.

Screen Survivors
Company Ticker Industry Share
Price
Price
Change
YTD (%)
Forward
P/E
Yield
(%)
Verizon Communications VZ Telecom Services $30.99 -8.6 12.25 5.9
Philip Morris International PM Cigarettes 42.61 -2.1 13.79 5.1
Bristol-Myers Squibb BMY Drugs 20.96 -9.9 10.92 5.9
H.J. Heinz HNZ Food 35.72 -5.0 13.38 4.7
ConocoPhilips COP Oil & Gas 41.62 -19.0 13.00 4.5

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Funds Making Money in the World’s Riskiest Markets

Rob Lutts, president of Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass., routinely travels to Pacific Rim countries like Vietnam and Singapore — so-called emerging markets — in search of undervalued stock tickers. He’s become so comfortable with investing outside the U.S. that as much as 30% of his aggressive growth portfolios are exposed to overseas markets like these.

“I am not trying to replicate the returns of some index,” says Lutts. “I want to grow my clients’ money.”

Considering that the average emerging market fund lost 55.5% last year (the plain vanilla S&P 500 index fund lost 37.3%), Lutts’ heavy weighting may sound surprising. To some, however, the move is prescient. As investors take their money off the sidelines they are investing in both U.S . equities and international ones. According to Lipper, the average emerging markets fund is up 33.3% this year. Such a performance is reminiscent of the category’s pre-2008 levels when investors flocked to investments in countries like China and India.

Of course, it’s hard to tell if the latest run will continue. SmartMoney.com decided to focus on emerging market offerings this week to see which funds are pulling ahead of the pack. There are 464 funds and share classes in our database that focus on emerging markets like China, India, Russia or regions like Latin America. We disqualified 401 for charging a sales load. We then searched for funds that had low fees and above-average three- and five-year track records. In addition, the funds needed to have a year-to-date return that exceeded the average international offering. In the end, we were left with just two funds.

Investing in emerging markets come with risks — and rewards. In a good year, the typical emerging market fund can easily outpace their U.S.-based counterparts. That was certainly the case in 2006 and 2007 when China funds gained over 50% both years.

But there are plenty of stumbling blocks that can puncture that performance. Liquidity — the idea that investors can build a position and then sell it when they want — is often a problem especially in smaller emerging economies.

These markets can also be volatile as the hot money tends to exit as quickly as it enters. And investors must also consider geopolitical risks, like those playing out in Iran or North Korea.

All those concerns make picking the proper investment vehicle a difficult task. Lutts prefers to buy the shares of individual companies he comes across during his travels. Baidu.com (BIDU), the Google-like search engine company based in China, is one of his favorites.

But if individual stock ticker-picking seems too risky, another way to play emerging markets is to invest in an ETF geared toward a particular country. The iShares exchange traded fund family has made it easy to either bet on regions or individual countries. For example, the iShares Turkey (TUR), South Africa (EZA), Brazil (EWZ) and Taiwan (EWT) funds each focus on those respective countries. Investors should just be mindful that ETFs such as these still come with a lot of volatility.

“We are allocating more money to emerging markets,” says Robert Phillips, managing partner of Spectrum Management Group in Indianapolis. But, he warns: “It doesn’t take a lot of money flows to influence prices.”

Another option is an index fund. Vanguard Emerging Markets stock ticker fund (VEIEX) owns stock tickers in about two dozen emerging markets. Its largest holding is China Mobile. An alternative to an index fund is to pay for a managed offering in order to gain access to a manager who knows the ins and outs of overseas investing. We’ve included both types of funds in the table below.

The Criteria: The funds that made our list this week are classified in Lipper’s emerging markets category. They are open to new money, require a minimum investment under $5,000 and charge an annual expense ratio less than 1.5%. Their three- and five-year track records put them in the top 40% of that category. In addition, they also had to beat the year-to-date performance of the typical international fund, which, according to Lipper, stands at 14.2% through Thursday. As usual, we did not include load funds.

Spanning the Globe
Ticker Name Assets
($ Millions)
YTD
Return
(%)
3-Year
Average
Annual
Return
(%)
5-Year
Average
Annual
Return
(%)
Expense
Ratio
(%)
Minimum
Initial
Investment
Source: Lipper
Note: Data as of June 25, 2009
PRLAX T. Rowe Price Latin America 1955.2 47.43 10.41 27.01 1.22 $2,500
VEIEX Vanguard Emerging Markets stock ticker Index 5414.7 33.83 4.43 14.08 0.32 $3,000
Recipe

Fund Type = Emerging Markets *
Annualized 3-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (3 year performance) <= 40
Annualized 5-Year Return (%) = Display Only
Rank in Classification (%) (5 year performance) <= 40
Expense Ratio <= 1.5%
Load Fund (type) = No Load
Minimum Initial Investment <= $5,000
Open to New Investors = Yes
Total Net Assets ($ millions) >= 50
Year-to-Date Return (%) >= 14.2%

* The screen does not include emerging market fixed-income offerings.

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