Stock quotes are the most powerful tools for technical analysis. They provide the information about the price changes and other details of stock traded in stock markets. Stock quotes are considered as the primary tools for traders to find suitable stocks and to go long and short when ever necessary. Quote information is also available for currencies, options and futures.

In early days getting stock quotes were a tedious process, and was the major limiting factor which restricted the practice of stock trading. But with the introduction of faster communication devices and networks, getting stock quotes became so easy that even a child can get those with his home computer or television. Stock quotes can be broadly classified into three categories such as real-time stock quotes, delayed stock quotes and historical stock quotes.

Real-time stock quotes are the most powerful quotes providing real-time market information. They are also known as streaming stock quotes or live stock quotes. Real-time stock quotes are provided by particular quote sites and online stock brokers through specialized systems. The quote providers usually charge a fee, mostly on monthly basis, for these quotes; some may provide free quotes, but the traders have to fulfill certain requirements such as minimum trading volume or higher account status. Real-time streaming stock quotes are vital for online day traders as they have to buy and sell stocks with minute variations in price of stocks.

Delayed stock quotes are stock quotes with a delay of 15 minutes or so. They are popularly known as free stock quotes as most are available free or charge. Delayed stock quotes are provided by a variety of institutions/portals such as famous financial institutions, company websites, stock exchange websites, financial portals of Yahoo! and MSN, daily newspapers, journals, television channels. They are also available through newsletters and e-mails, SMS feeds etc. Delayed stocks quotes are extensively helpful for small-scale and long-term traders.

Historical stock quotes provide price information of particular stock at a historical point of time. They are relatively hard to find. Historical stock quotes are extensively used by experienced traders to find stock market cycles and trend change patterns. They are provided by many brokerage firms and some dedicated financial institutions, which track and record each trade done on each day for future uses.

The presentation of stock quotes also varies considerable with type of source. The most powerful presentation with eye catching capabilities comes from advanced direct access trading systems. They also may have customizable alerts and triggers to warn and help a trader. Free stock quotes may be simple one line phrase to table and graphical representations. A standard stock quote contains information about the current price of the stock, the highest and lowest prices of yesterday/today, the trading range, dividend yielded, P/E ration, traded volume, traded frequency, etc. Some may contain foot notes or comments to provide additional information.