Stock quote is a list circulated manually or electronically during trading hours of the day that contains prices of the stocks and shares. The obtained list of prices may be different depending on exchange and place as it may be real time or 5-15 minutes delayed. In a simple language two factors that demand and supply are responsible for the stock prices.
The ups and downs of the stock prices will be dependent on amount of supplies and number of buyers you will have at a given point of time. For the understanding of a layman simply more supply and less demand will cause the fall of a price of the stock and more demand and less supply of the same stock will cause price rise. The equilibrium is important in stock market in order to avoid financial crash it happens when buyers enter the market attracted to higher selling prices of a stock and seller exits in order to come back again.
These days stock trading is electronic and mostly online because it is not possible for all the buyers, sellers and brokers to be present at one location in one stock exchange. Trading and settlement without paper is what we have got as result of online trading. Stock exchanges and buyer/sellers are brought in together online by broker’s websites by providing instant stock quote that create heavy demand/supply in the market. The rate of real time online quotes is 99% which enables buyers, sellers to trade from remotest locations of the country. Through internet and online facility buyers, sellers can trade one stock on multiple exchanges and keep a performance record also at the same time.
Fraction was the previous way of quoting share and equity prices and decimal is the new way of quoting stock pricing. Generally, exchanges have identical formats of their price quotes that they offer to their buyers and suppliers but the standard one shows bid, asking price and last price.
If not exchanges brokers ensure to provide information to their member buyers and sellers on the 52 week low/high prices of the stock which may influence their decision making. Usually, the stock quote is 99% real time online but it is recommended that one must check the stamp of time against it while checking the price of a quote.