Business, Legal & Accounting Glossary
Ticker tape is the name of a thin ribbon of paper that was once used in stock ticker machines. This was able to provide a running print-out of stock market fluctuations. Nowadays, stock ticker machines have largely been replaced with digital “tickers” on websites, television news, or LED displays. The ticker tape machine that was invented in 1867 first allowed people to have a look at the stock quotes in something close to real-time.
Before that the stock ticker was invented, stock prices were delivered by hand, usually just in a daily digest. Due to the reason that stock prices fluctuate constantly, so it offers a significant benefit to investors and traders being aware of stock prices in real-time.
In a way, the stock ticker was the precursor to the modern computer printer.
By means of wires, textual information was transported to the stock ticker machine so that they printed out that information on the ticker tape.
Along with numeric indicators of current stock prices, alphanumeric ticker symbols, codes that indicate the different companies trading in the stock market, were used.
In order to input the information a special typewriter was used, which was transmitted by telegraph to stock ticker machines and then printed out on ticker tape.
The principle that works behind that Edison’s alphanumeric code is still used in modern-day stock information, though the ticker symbols that were used before have now been standardized and updated. In addition to this, color coding is used by many tickers like green, red, and blue or white colors, so that one can see at a glance that whether each company has gained or lost stock market points or they have remained stable, respectively. With the advent of the Internet and digital on-screen displays, the stock ticker became obsolete.
In the days when ticker tape was used, old printouts were often shredded in order to make a type of confetti that could be thrown from office windows during street parades. This practice is common in Manhattan, New York, and other urban centers, it is referred to as a “ticker-tape parade.” Ticker tape parades still exist, though there are other shredded office documents that now serve as the confetti.
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This glossary post was last updated: 13th November, 2021 | 0 Views.