Today's Low

What is Today's Low?

Today’s low is a security's intraday low trading price. Today's low is the lowest price at which a stock trades over the course of a trading day.

Understanding Today's Low

Today's low is typically lower than the opening or closing price, as it is unusual that the lowest price of the day would happen to occur at those particular moments.

Today's low and today's high are important to day traders and technical analysts, who seek to earn profits from a security's short-term price movements and identify and track trends. Studying these benchmarks can help investors and analysts spot emerging trends, which can also allow them to react quickly to evolving shifts. 

One way that day traders use today's low along with today's high is to identify gaps, or sudden jumps up or down in a stock's price with no trading in between. Gaps are used in technical analysis to identify directional movement, average true range/price volatility, candlestick patterns and more. Traders then analyze these patterns to determine profitable entry and exit points. Traders can also use benchmarks such as today’s low to assess a stock’s value or try to predict trends.

Today’s Low and the 52-Week Low

When you look at a stock quote, you can find today's low by looking at the first number listed next to "Range." Other key data points that are included in a typical stock quote include the bid and ask prices, number of shares available for trading, and the price and time at which the last trade occurred.

For a more comprehensive, long-range view of a company’s stock performance, many analysts also look at the 52-week high and low. This represents the highest and lowest price at which a given stock has traded over the previous year, or another one-year period.

Markets such as Nasdaq routinely identify stocks that are currently in the 52-week high or low category, which means those stocks are right now in the position of selling at their highest or lowest price of the past year.

Some traders like to focus on buying stocks that are hitting new record highs. Other investors consider trying to get bargain deals on stocks that are hitting a new bottom. Either approach can involve a certain heightened level of risk, but can also be potentially lucrative for investors who are savvy about identifying trends and predicting future movements, or for those investors who just happen to be lucky and have good instincts.