Live pricing information

[Clitheroekid]

I've quite enjoyed trading some shares of late, but have missed some opportunities by leaving it too long between viewing the price.

What I would really like is to have a small window in a corner of the screen that would display the current price of a given share.

So there are really two elements to this. The first is does anyone know of free access to live prices, as all the sites I use seem to lag by about 15 minutes?

The second is does anyone know of software that would enable me to have a small window showing that price? it's obviously not very technically demanding, so it may be that there's already something in Windows that I'm not aware of. I'm using W7 and Chrome as my default setup.

TIA .

[Itsallaguess]

What I would really like is to have a small window in a corner of the screen that would display the current price of a given share.

So there are really two elements to this. The first is does anyone know of free access to live prices, as all the sites I use seem to lag by about 15 minutes?

The second is does anyone know of software that would enable me to have a small window showing that price? it's obviously not very technically demanding, so it may be that there's already something in Windows that I'm not aware of. I'm using W7 and Chrome as my default setup.

Google Finance solves both issues, I think, although you'll have to test it tomorrow if you're looking at UK stocks, as the two issues are only solved during market hours when the live-feeds are automatically updated.

To see this in action now, however, we can test using a live price-feed for CISCO on the NASDAQ.

Open the following URL into a SEPARATE browser window (right-click and 'Open in new window' or your browser-equivalent...) -

http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ACSCO

If you minimise that browser and wait a little while for Google Finance to update the latest price (should only take half a minute or so, perhaps less), then you'll see the minimised browser tab on your bottom bar change to say something like "NASDAQ:CSCO: 31.4...", or something similar. That 31.4 is the live price, and it should change as the price moves in real time.

It's a poor demo, however, as most of the visible string is taken up with the NASDAQ: text. With a LONDON stock, this is reduced to just say LON: following by the relevant ticker, but again, this only happens during active market hours I think.

So, if the above works to a degree, and you like the idea, then have a go tomorrow after 8am with the following VODAFONE URL (right-click and 'Open in new window' or your browser-equivalent...) -

http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=LON:VOD

It will actually update now, having just tested it, and it currently changes to "LON:VOD 216.87", but will only show the last price at close of market tonight. If you try it tomorrow, you'll hopefully see it getting updated in real-time on your bottom bar, if you minimise the separate browser instance that you open it in, and then carry on with your normal work in either another browser, or whatever other program you happen to be using.

I'll be interested in your findings CK, but hopefully the above is useful to you. I'm using Firefox as my main browser, but hopefully the above will work with any standard Windows browser.

Good luck with the trading!

Cheers,

Itsallaguess