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It may seem hard to believe but there was a time when the primary source to find stock quotes was a newspaper such as the Wall Street Journal. Of course, those prices were already one day old by the time you scanned the tiny newsprint for your stock ticker. How times have changed for investors! Stock prices are now available instantaneously (real time) through the several online stock brokerage services. You can even find stock prices on virtually every portal news web site such as Yahoo, Lycos and MSN although these prices are typically on a 15-20 minute delay. The advent of the Internet and the constant advances in computing technology has made easier than ever to be an informed investor and to track stock price quotes and gather stock market information. A search for "stock quotes" on a major search engine returned 18.4 million web pages related to stock quotes. All this information has been a boon to investors. However, online stock quotes can be maddening as well as enabling. I know that I have sat glued to my computer monitor hitting the refresh button after buying a stock in the hopes to see it move that quarter point. In truth, I have sat there refreshing my browser after I sold a stock hoping that it would not go up. I will admit that irrational human behavior and emotion can overtake even a staunch economist. It is not just the computer and Internet that has given us stock quotes. Another familiar device can ensure that you can access stock market quotes no matter where you are. Going back in time again, I can remember calling my stock broker to get a stock quote and find out additional information about a stock including intraday news. A phone stock quote was as real time as you could get. Today, cell phones, pagers, PDAs can all be enabled to receive wireless data and therefore offer real-time stock quotes and stock prices as well as news that may affect your investments. There are several companies that provide the software and access to a wireless network so you can receive stock quotes no matter where you may be. You may want to consider Stocksmart to add stock market quotes to your wireless device. Also, Textually.org provides free stock quotes using text messaging. You can simply send a text message to a prescribed search engine with the name of the stock you are interested in, and a message with the latest stock price is immediately returned.
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Stock Quotes
