There are two main types of stocks: common and preferred.
Common shares are a title of ownership - shareholders are owners of a company, and usually have voting rights. Common shares typically appreciate (or depreciate) in price quicker than preferred shares, and may receive dividends.
Preferred shares have characteristics of both equity and debt.
- Equity: preferred shares can rise (or fall) in price, but usually at a slower rate than common shares.
- Debt: preferred shareholders typically receive a periodic dividend, and usually have a higher priority of dividend payment than dividends to common shareholders.
Other common features of preferred shares include:
- the possibility to be converted to common shares;
- to be callable (redeemed) by the issuing corporation;
- typically they do not have voting privileges;
- a higher priority (over common shares) in the event the company is liquidated.
Note: the descriptions and screen shots apply to QuestraderWEB. For details about stock quotes on QuestraderPRO or QuestraderELITE, please speak to a Questrade agent.
| Symbol |
The stock’s trading symbol |
| Last |
The price of the last executed trade |
| Change |
The change in price between the last traded price and the price at the end of the previous trading session |
| %Change |
The percentage change in price between the last traded price and the price at the end of the previous trading session |
| Bid |
The best (highest) price a market participant is willing to purchase the stock |
| Bid size |
The number of shares available at the bid price |
| Ask |
The best (lowest) price a market participant is willing to sell the stock |
| Ask size |
The number of shares available at the ask price |
| Volume |
The number of shares traded during the most recent (today’s) trading session |
| Trend |
The direction of the previous trades
e.g., yellow means no change from one trade to the next, red means a lower trading price, green means a higher trading price
|
| High |
The highest price paid for the stock during the most recent (today’s) trading session |
| Low |
The lowest price paid for the stock during the most recent (today’s) trading session |
| 52wk high |
The highest price paid for the stock over the past 52 weeks |
| 52wk low |
The lowest price paid for the stock over the past 52 weeks |
| Open |
The first traded price at the start of the most recent (today’s) trading session |
| Prev. close |
The last traded price at the close of the most recent trading session |
| Exchange |
The exchange where the stock trades
e.g., TSX for the Toronto Stock Exchange, etc. |
| Yield |
The dividend yield on the stock, if applicable |
| Dividend rate |
The yearly dividend |
| Ex-dividend date |
New buyers of the stock on or after this date will not receive the previous dividend payment |
| EPS |
Earnings per share – a commonly used financial ratio |
| PE ratio |
The price per earnings ratio – a commonly used financial ratio |
| Name |
The name of the company |
Liquidity refers to how easily securities can be bought or sold in the market. A security is liquid when there are enough units outstanding for large transactions to occur without a substantial change in price.
In general, the most liquid stocks are widely held stocks of large well-known corporations. An executed trade is unlikely to have a large impact on the stock price.
Generally, the most illiquid stocks are small start-ups whose shares trade for under a dollar. An order for a large number of shares, which may cost a relatively small amount, can easily have a large impact on the price.
There are two main types of stock data available: level 1, and level 2.
Level 1: the best bid, ask, volume, and last traded price are all shown. Depending on your trading platform and your data package level, you may need to refresh the data to update the quotes.
Level 2: all level 1 data is shown, as well as the depth of orders – orders for prices below the best bid and above the best ask are shown, along with the number of shares available at each price. Prices update automatically.
The cost to purchase a stock is the quantity of shares, multiplied by the executed price, plus commission. For example, if you purchase 100 shares of a $20 stock, the cost is (100 * $20) $2,000. Commission is then added. The Questrade commission is 1¢ per share, minimum $4.95 / maximum $9.95. In this example, your commission for 100 shares would be $4.95.
Day trading: trading one or more stocks multiple times in the same day. The strategy usually involves trading a high volume of shares, and making a small profit on each share.
Swing trading: trades lasting anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks.
Long-term investing: trades lasting longer than a few weeks. Usually long-term investors hold a stock for a period of years.
Shorting: shorting works in the opposite way of buying a stock – you could short a stock if you believe the price of the stock is going lower. When shorting a stock, you are effectively selling borrowed shares. To close a short position, you would place a cover order to buy back the shares.
See our resources section for a wealth of stock resources.