that's The Why Files. Unfortunately, we're not traded on any exchange, because we don't exist. But thanks for asking. Just send money, and we'll return a bogus stock certificate, suitable for framing or sending to your district attorney.

Key to the kingdom: how to read a stock table. If you're feeling possessed by the urge to drop some serious money on Wall Street, you'll have to start learning to decipher a stock table. Here's our suggestions for decoding the table showing yesterday's activity for a fictitious share of TWF, Inc. The various stock exchanges (New York, American, NASDAQ and Clintonville, Wisconsin) are listed separately in newspapers. Specific stock tables may have many incomprehensible footnotes and symbols. It's your job to figure out what they mean. Note: Most markets are open five days a week, so "yesterday" means the previous trading day.

111/4

63/4

TWF

.40

4.1

14

237

113/4

107/8

11

+1/8

the high and low prices of this stock during the past year. Prices are listed in eighths or sixteenths of a dollar, but yesterday's close is ignored here. this shorthand for the company name is listed on annual reports and stock prospectuses. In some cases, you may be lucky enough to decipher what it stands for. But what in the world is BrgdVw, anyway? Hint: they're traded on the AmEx (defined). Shows the annual rate of dividend (defined) payment, based on the company's most recent dividend declaration. annual dividend divided by closing price, expressed as a percentage. stock price divided by declared earnings-per-share for the last four quarters. A key measure of a stock's underlying value. number of shares sold yesterday, in hundreds. Note: if the stock is listed as ex-dividend (defined), the price will generally be discounted during this period by the amount of the dividend. Yesterday's highest price. Yesterday's lowest price. Price of the final trade of the day. Last trade yesterday compared to last trade of the day before. As you can see, yesterday was not a great day for the Fictitious Files. Not to bother, we're ready for the slide. We've already sold "puts" (defined) in a big way... Want to read The Why Files who-dun-its?

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