My inability to trade TESTA and TESTB caused me to switch brokers three times before I finally figured out what was going on.
I believe you are incorrect. It is indeed a consolidated tape (nothing to do with CNBC). Of NYSE listed stocks. So this includes third market trades. Therefore, saying it is a NYSE tape is inaccurate. Third market includes not only exchange traded (PHLX, PSE, etc., which trade after NY closes), but listed stocks that trade OTC after hours (Instinet, Redi, etc., ...any ECN). This is why when a listed issue trades higher or lower after 4pm (say on earnings), the next day the CHANGE in price (as shown on CNBC's tape) is based not on the 4 pm closing price, but on the last reported (consolidated market) price. As far as "minimum size"....look at the tape. Huge amount--maybe majority of trades-- of 100 share lots (any trade without a number after the symbol is a 100 share trade). So obviously, this is not based on size; unless you consider the tape not showing odd lots a basis of size. TESTA and TESTB are exactly what they look like. Test orders. Why they register on the tape is anyone's guess. I have not noticed if they have been filtered out or not recently. Certainly they have no place on the tape, but other than taking up space, they are of no significance. But it would be unusual to see them often during regular trading hours. I have sent those orders myself once or twice when first learning to use the Redi-Plus platform. I see no reason why anyone would use it more than that unless they are REALLY BORED. I couldn't even say if it was a Redi-Plus or ARCA function. Maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe a Speer Leeds thing. Totally meaningless in any event. Peace, RS
Subject: Exchanges - Ticker Tape Terminology Last-Revised: 19 Sep 1999 Contributed-By: Keith Brewster, Norbert Schlenker, Richard Sauers (rsauers at enter.net), Art Kamlet (artkamlet at aol.com) Every stock traded on the world's stock exchanges is identified by a short symbol. For example, the symbol for AT&T is just T. These symbols date from the days when stock trades were reported on a ticker tape. Ticker symbols are still used today as brief, unambiguous identifiers for stocks. Similar abbreviations are used for stock options and many other securities. Ticker symbols get reused on different exchanges, so you'll sometimes see a qualification ahead of the ticker symbol. For example, the symbol "C:A" refers to a company traded on one of the Canadian exchanges (Toronto, to be exact) with the symbol A. The stock quote services on the web usually understand this notation. It's probably no surprise that the North American-centric services pretty much assume that anything unqualified is traded on a U.S. exchange; I've found that they do not accept something like "NYSE:T" even though they perhaps should. A few stock ticker symbols include a suffix, which seems to differentiate among a company's various classes of common stock. Somem of the quote services allow you to enter the ticker and suffix all run together, while others require you to enter a dot between the ticker and the suffix. For an example, try AKO, classes A and B. Now that you understand a bit about the ticker symbol, there's some more explanation required to understand what appears on the "ticker tape" such as those shown on CNN or CNBC. Ticker tape says: Translation (but see below): NIKE68 1/2 100 shares sold at 68 1/2 10sNIKE68 1/2 1000 shares sold at " 10.000sNIKE68 1/2 10000 shares sold at " The extra zeroes for the big trades are to make them stand out. All trades on CNN and CNBC are delayed by 15 minutes. CNBC once advertised a "ticker guide pamphlet, free for the asking", back when they merged with FNN. It also has explanations for the futures they show. You can also see an explanation on the web at this URL: http://www.cnbc.com/onlycnbc/101/ticker.asp However, the first translation is not necessarily correct. CNBC has a dynamic maximum size for transactions that are displayed this way. Depending on how busy things are at any particular time, the maximum varies from 100 to 5000 shares. You can figure out the current maximum by watching carefully for about five minutes. If the smallest number of shares you see in the second format is "10s" for any traded security, then the first form can mean anything from 100 to 900 shares. If the smallest you see is "50s" (which is pretty common), the first form means anything between 100 and 4900 shares. Note that at busy times, a broker's ticker drops the volume figure and then everything but the last dollar digit (e.g. on a busy day, a trade of 25,000 IBM at 68 3/4 shows only as "IBM 8 3/4" on a broker's ticker). That never happens on CNBC, so I don't know how they can keep up with all trades without "forgetting" a few. NASDAQ uses a "fifth letter" identifier in its ticker symbols. Four letter symbols, and five letter symbols in instances of multiple issues listed by the same company, are listed in newspapers and carried on the ticker screen by CNBC and CNN. These symbols are required to retrieve quotes from quote servers. Here's the complete list of the NASDAQ fifth-letter identifiers with brief descriptions: Symbol Meaning A Class A B Class B C exempt from NASDAQ listing qualifications for limited period D new issue E delinquent in required SEC filings F foreign G First convertible bond H Second convertible bond (same company) I Third convertible bond (same company) J Voting K Nonvoting L misc situations, including second class units, third class warrants, or sixth class preferred stock M Fourth class preferred (same company) N Third class preferred (same company) O Second class preferred (same company) P First class preferred (same company) Q in bankruptcy proceedings R Rights S Shares of beneficial interest T with warrants or rights U Units V When issued and when distributed W Warrants X mutual fund Y American Depositary Receipts Z misc situations, including second class of warrants, fifth class preferred stock or any unit, receipt or certificate representing a limited partnership interest. Source http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/investment-faq/general/part6.html
HOW TO USE THE CNBC TICKER TO FOLLOW THE MARKET: The Ticker is a continuous display of numbers and symbols that helps you understand the buying and selling activity of each business day. The CNBC Ticker provides useful information about the daily transactions of shares, stock prices and volume data, commodity futures and market indices along with two widely followed market trend indicators, the Tick and Arms. This guide will show you how to follow the Ticker's upper and lower bands, and what information you can find on a typical business day. THE UPPER BAND: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (ET) Commodity futures quotes begin running at 8:00 a.m. and are shown at :11, :21, :31, :41 and :51 after the hour, in real time. These prices run until 7:00 p.m. (ET). 9:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. (ET) Display of stock prices and volume data for trades on the New York Stock Exchange, beginning 15 minutes after the market opens at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. (Under contract with the Exchanges, CNBC may only report trades on a 15-minute delay.) 4:15 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (ET) An alphabetical recap of New York Stock Exchange closing prices for all the stocks that traded that day with the amount of change from the previous days close. The commodity futures trading recap also appears. THE LOWER BAND: 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (ET) An alphabetical recap of New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq closing prices from the previous day's close, punctuated by market summaries. This recap displays all stocks that have traded at least once in the previous 20 sessions. 9:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. (ET) CNBC's real time market summary repeats uninterrupted for 15 minutes. 9:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. (ET) CNBC's market summary reports continue along with American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq stock trades. 4:15 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (ET) An alphabetical recap of issues that traded that day on the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq with their changes from the previous day's close, punctuated by market summaries. TYPICAL TRADES: HAL 118 .. HAL is the stock symbol, 118 is the price at which the trade was made. CDS 15s22 .. CDS is the stock symbol, "s" stands for shares, so 15s designates the volume of the trade with the last two zeroes omitted (1500 in this example), 22 is the price. NCR 11.000s55 .. NCR is the stock symbol, 11.000s designates the volume of the trade (zeroes are not omitted if the volume is over 10,000 shares), 55 is the price. Stock prices are expressed in U.S. Dollars and fractional parts of U.S. Dollars. For example, a stock price of 26-1/2 equals $26.50. Fractions are written out on the ticker except for sixteenths, which are designated using an apostrophe during trading hours. For example, 2'3 on the ticker equals 2-3/16. During the afternoon recap, a change of plus or minus 1/16 is indicated by just a + or -. For example, 5-1/2+ means the stock closed at 5-1/2, up 1/16 during the trading day. <b>Due to the large number of trades, the ticker is unable to show every transaction. Roughly half are selected by our computer, based on factors including the number of shares and the movement in price from the previous trade. The larger the volume or the price movement, the greater the chances that the trade will be included on the ticker.</b> (from CNBC ticker guide. Continued in next message.)
COMMODITY FUTURES SYMBOL GUIDE: The first two letters of a Commodity Symbol indicate the name of the Commodity. (There are a few commodities with one-letter symbols) The third number indicates the month of the contract for that commodity. Commodity Sym. Commodity Sym. -------------- ----- ------------- ----- S&P 500 SP Platinum PL S&P 400 MD Palladium PA Russell 2000 RL Copper HG NYSE Index YX Corn C Value Line KV Wheat W Nikkei 225 Ind. NK Soybeans S T-Bonds US Soybean Oil BO T-Bills TB Soybean Meal SM Eurodollars ED Oats O 2-Year T-Note TU Live Cattle LC 5-Year T-Note FV Feeder Cattle FC 10-Year T-Note TY Goldman Sachs Commodity Index GI Libor 1-month EM Live Hogs LH Muni-Bonds MB Pork Bellies PB Dollar Index DX Cotton CT Swiss Franc SF Lumber LB Deutschemark DM Crude Oil CL Japanese Yen JY Heating Oil HO British Pound BP Unleaded Gasoline HU Canadian Dollar CD Natural Gas NG Australian Dollar AD Sugar SB CRB Index CR Coffee KC Gold GC Cocoa CC Silver SI Orange Juice JO Month Due Symbol Month Due Symbol ---------------- ------ ------------- ------ January F July N February G August Q March H September U April J October V May K November X June M December Z GLOSSARY OF MARKET SUMMARY COMPONENTS: Stock Exchanges New York Stock Exchange: The NYSE is also known as the Big Board. Listing more than 3,275 stocks, the NYSE generally lists the oldest, largest and best-known companies in the United States. Stocks are exchanged on a trading floor located on Wall Street in New York City. The Nasdaq Stock Market: Includes the Nasdaq Stock Market and Nasdaq National Market, or NNM. There is no physical exchange where stocks are traded. Instead, prices are determined and trades are made on computer screens at brokerages around the country. The Nasdaq Stock Market is not synonymous with the over-the-counter market. The more than 5,000 Nasdaq-listed companies trade in a highly structured environment which has listing standards, real-time trade reporting, corporate governance requirements, affirmative obligations for market makers, execution services and automatic linkages with clearance and settlement facilities. This cannot be said of the approximately 5,000 OTC securities. American Stock Exchange: Listing approximately 940 stocks, the AMEX lists smaller, younger companies. The AMEX trading floor is in New York City. Futures Exchanges (Chicago) Chicago Board of Trade (CBT): Grains, bonds and short-term interest rates. Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME): Livestock, currencies and stock index futures. Futures Exchanges (New York) The Commodities Exchange (COMEX): Precious Metals, Copper and Aluminum New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE): Cotton and Dollar Index New York Mercantile Exchange (MERC): Petroleum and Precious Metals Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange (CSCE)
INDICES, AVERAGES AND OTHER MARKET INDICATORS IN THE CNBC MARKET SUMMARY DJIA: The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also referred to as "The Dow." The Average is calculated using a formula and the common stock prices of 30 major U.S. industrial companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. TRAN: The Dow Jones Transportation Average is calculated using the prices of 20 airline, trucking and railroad company stocks. UTIL: The Dow Jones Utility Average is a group of 15 gas, electric and power company stocks. DJCOMP: The Dow Jones 65 Composite Average is calculated from the average of all the stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial, Transportation and Utility Averages. S&P 500: The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is calculated using the stock prices of 500 relatively large companies as measured by capitalization. (Capitalization is the value of a company as measured by the market price of its common shares multiplied by the total number of shares that have been issued.). The S&P 500 is widely used as an indicator of stock market trends and for futures trading strategies. The Index is market-weighted, which means the component stocks affect the Index in direct proportion to the dollar value of the shares outstanding. The components of the Index can change, as S&P adds or deletes stocks to reflect changing conditions. The Standard & Poor's 500 is also broken down into smaller industry segments which are monitored separately. These segments are industrial (400 companies), transportation (20 companies), utilities (40 companies) and financial (40 companies.) PREM: The PREM Value Index is useful in determining when computer driven "buy" or "sell" programs are likely. Through computer programs, traders take advantage of premiums or discounts between the current price of stocks and stock index futures. Comparing the actual index to the futures contract, a trader will quickly sell the more expensive of the two and buy the less expensive. (This is an example of "arbitrage.") This computer-based activity (known as "program trading") can often accentuate sudden swings in the price of certain stocks, or cause dramatic shifts in the entire market. In general, when a significant premium exists, buy programs are likely to occur. When a significant discount exists, sell programs are likely. As a contract moves toward expiration, the difference between the future and cash price will diminish. As a result, the premium or discount needed for a buy or sell program will also get smaller. 30-YR YLD: The yield of the most recently issued 30-year U.S. Treasury Bond. This is widely used as a benchmark for long-term interest rates. Due to limited data availability, it is only shown between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern. XMI: The Major Market Index is a price-weighted index of 20 stocks. It is the basis for options traded at the AMEX and futures traded at the Chicago Board of Trade. OEX: Known as the S&P 100, this is used by the Chicago Board Options Exchange to trade stock index options. NYSE: The NYSE Composite Index, a capitalization- weighted index of all common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is the basis for options and futures traded on the New York Stock Exchange. TICK: This is a very short-term trading indicator. It is the difference between the number of NYSE stocks trading at a price higher than the previous trade ("uptick") and the number of stocks trading at a lower price than the previous trade ("downtick"). That is, TICK = Number of stocks moving higher minus the number of stocks moving lower. A large positive tick (the number usually ranges between -600 and +600) generally means the market is attracting more buyers than sellers. The opposite is true of a large negative number. The direction of the tick is important. If it is moving in a positive direction, (-100, 0, +150), it means the market is moving upward. If the tick is moving in a negative direction (+100, 0, -150), it means the market is going down. ARMS: This used to be called the Trin, or the short-term trading index. It is the ratio of the quotient of advancing issues divided by declining issues and up volume divided by down volume. Advancing Issues / Up Volume -------------------------------- = ARMS Index Declining Issues / Down Volume The direction of the ARMS Index is most important. A falling ARMS signals a strong market, while a rising ARMS suggests weakness ahead. The normal range is from 0.5 to 2.0. NY ADV: The number of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange that have increased in price from the previous day's close. DEC: The number of NYSE stocks that have decreased in price from the previous day's close. UNCH: The number of NYSE stocks trading at the same price as the previous day's close. NY VOL UP: The number of shares that have been traded for NYSE stocks that have increased in price from the previous day's close. DN: The number of shares that have been traded for NYSE stocks that have decreased in price from the previous day's close. TOT: The total number of shares that have been traded in NYSE stocks during the current trading day. VAL: The Value Line Index is an arithmetic average of 1700 stocks compiled by Value Line. It is the basis for options traded on the Philadelphia Board of Options Exchange. MID: The S&P MidCap 400 Index is calculated using the price of 400 medium-sized U.S. companies. WSX: The Wilshire Small Cap Index measures the performance of companies with relatively small capitalizations. It is a market-weighted index that includes 250 stocks, chosen on the basis of their market capitalization, liquidity and industry group representation. The Small Cap Index originates from the Wilshire Next 1750 Index, a benchmark for institutional investors in the small cap sector. SOX: The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's Semiconductor Sector index measures the performance of some of the largest and most widely-held U.S. computer chip stocks. This price-weighted index is made up of 16 stocks, including Intel, Micron Technology and Texas Instruments. MSH: The Morgan Stanley High-Technology 35 Index is designed to measure the performance of the electronics- based technology industry. Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft are among the 35 stocks in this equal-dollar weighted index. BKX: The Philadelphia Stock Exchange/Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Bank Sector index is composed of stocks designed to represent national money center banks and leading regional institutions. It is a capitalization- weighted index. BancOne, Citicorp and Wells Fargo are among the 24 stocks in this index. CRB: The Knight-Ridder Commodity Research Bureau Price Index tracks 21 commodities. A decline in the CRB indicates commodities prices are falling, which can signal lower inflation and interest rates, possibly leading to higher bond prices. XOI: The AMEX Oil Index includes 16 oil stocks. An increase can indicate rising oil prices, which may lead to increased inflation. XAU: The Gold and Silver Index is comprised of seven stocks on the New York and American Stock Exchanges. Some investors consider gold to be a "safe haven." As a result, its price often goes up in times of inflation, international finance crises and threats of war. AMEX AND NASDAQ SUMMARIES: These summaries provide information about each of these exchanges, including the number of advancing and declining issues and up and down volume. AMEX: The American Stock Exchange Market Value Index includes all common stocks listed on the American Stock Exchange, weighted by capitalization. NMS COMP: Nasdaq's National Market System Composite is an index of all issues traded over-the-counter on the Nasdaq National Market System
Since Sept. of 1999, this has changed. Don't know about CNN, but the quotes on CNBC are no longer delayed 15 minutes. (They are as current as possible for the format). Peace, RS
I find the CNBC ticker very interesting, especially after market trades. Does anyone know of a software or webpage based ticker that will show trades after market? I don't mean the "customized" list/portfolio tickers which just shows your stocks, but one that will show every stock. I know that this is virtually impossible during the day given the number of trades, but is there anything I can download for free or $$ that will show me after-market trades (delayed or real time), but that is able to show trades from all stocks, not just my stock "list"?