How Can You Follow London Stock Exchange Prices?London Stock Exchange prices are quoted in pounds and pence. This may seem a little obvious to mention, but there are a few exceptions quoted in euro. The most accurate place for the casual investor to receive his or her London Stock Exchange prices is in a daily paper. The most highly regarded of these is obviously the London Financial Times. Companies apply for and have to pay to be listed in the FT 'London Share Service'. Unless indicated, the price of shares is shown in pence. The prices are taken at the mid-market at the close of the previous days business. Mid-market is the price point half way between the buying and selling price of the share. + or - is used to show the movement of the share price compared to the previous day. High and Low figures are used to show the highest and lowest price over the preceeding 52 weeks. Yield. This is shown net of the tax credit. Yields are based on mid-market prices and allow for the value of declared distribution and rights. Volume '000s. This is designed to to show the number of shares (in thousands) traded during the previous day. More liquid shares usually have a much higher turnover. For the more sophisticated investor, the internet hosts myriad websites that show up the minute quotations of all listed companies.
Running to the front However, at this level of sophistication the modern day stock market is a Machiavellian world of bluff, counter bluff, advantage, high powered computers and algorithms. This report explains that the average share trade lasted just 22 seconds in January 2012. With computers searching out minor advantages and executing trades faster than we humans can say "Done" over the telephone, getting the best prices is now much more difficult than it once was. When we consider the size of modern markets and their daily turnover, it is possible to see just how much money some of these - mostly hedge - funds are making. Take a look at the turnover of a company like BP, Lloyds Banking Group or Vodafone to see truly enormous numbers. Then multiply that number by the share price to see just how valuable stock exchange trade really is, and imagine what must be for those with secretive black box trading algorithms! To get the greatest level of advantage, these "high frequency trading" funds are using very powerful computers and co-location - the hosting of these computers in the same building as the stock exchange computers to lessen the time it takes for information to reach them, enabling trades to happen even faster automatically. To read more about the LSE, please visit:
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