Review the Pricing History for Shares of a Company’s Stock Using BMO InvestorLine

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It’s usually a good idea to do a quick review of how a stock has been trading before entering a purchase order. Some stocks are thinly traded and barely change price but when they do it can be in large jumps. For example, CWL dropped from over $1 to about $0.75 a share in five trading days, but only sold a few thousand shares when it did. Other stocks, like TD can bounce up and down $1.50 on any given trading day and trade hundreds of thousands of shares. Here’s how to check the price history for a specific equity using BMO InvestorLine.

How to Check the Price History for an Equity Using BMO InvestorLine

  1. Go to BMO InvestorLine at: https://www.bmoinvestorline.com/
  2. To sign in to your BMO InvestorLine account/s:
    1. In the User ID or Account # field, type your account number or
      if you have grouped your accounts under one User ID, type your User ID.
    2. In the Password field, type your password.
    3. Click on the Go button.
  3. Under the Quotes & Tools tab, click on Quotes.
  4. In the Symbol field, enter the ticker symbol for the company.
    For example, I typed BNS for the Bank of Nova Scotia.
  5. Click on the Go button.
  6. Review the day’s information about bid, ask, high, low, open and previous close.
    NOTE that all price information on this screen is 15- to 20-minute delayed. You will only see the current or spot price when you are in the Buy Order screen.
  7. Look at the 52-week high and low, the EPS and P/E ratio.
  8. There’s a handy little chart to the right that shows how the stock has been trading today.
    I can see at a glance that BNS took a 25 cent per share dive after the opening of trading but has since rebounded and is now trading within a very narrow range.
  9. Click on the 5 day; 1 month; 6 months; 1 year and 5 years tabs to see the chart for the various time periods.
    For example, a review of the chart for BNS for 1 year shows that last year it climbed significantly through December to March, then peaked and has fallen. In early May it began to climb again. It has not yet fallen to last summer’s prices.
  10. A look at the five year price history also shows a tendency for this stock to bounce around quite a bit. It’s currently trading near its all time highs.
    Do I want to buy or wait and hope for a pull back?
    Do I want to only buy part of a position now, and pay a second commission to buy another part a few months from now?
    I need to decide these things BEFORE I place my purchase order.
  11. When your review is complete, click on the Sign Out link.
  12. For increased security, close your browser session.

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