Session Prices and Price States

Open, high, low, last-sale, unchanged, and trailing-range fields interpreted through their session, source, timing, and adjustment rules.

Session prices and price states covers the trade-derived and comparative fields used to summarize where an instrument opened, traded, and sits relative to a reference or historical range.

Start with Stock Quote Price Fields for a unified explanation of open, high, low, last sale, unchanged, and 52-week range. The comparison matters because each field answers a different question and none is necessarily an executable price.

What the Canonical Article Covers

TopicUse it when the question is aboutEvidence to check
Opening priceThe official auction or first eligible session priceExchange, session, opening method, timestamp, and volume
Last saleThe most recent eligible reported transactionExecution time, report time, venue, size, condition, and delay
High and lowThe maximum and minimum eligible prices over a periodPeriod, session, adjustments, trade conditions, and source
52-week rangeThe trailing-year band and current price’s location within itRolling window, price field, adjustments, and history length
UnchangedA current field equal to a stated referenceCurrent field, reference, timestamp, precision, and source

Decision Lens

Session-price labels are only meaningful when the reference period is clear. A high or low can be intraday, daily, 52-week, regular-session, adjusted, or vendor-defined. An opening price can come from an auction or first eligible trade, while a last sale records a completed transaction rather than current quoted interest.

Move to Trading Sessions and Halts when the issue is trading hours, halts, or session eligibility. Move to Price Action, Sentiment, and Volatility when the issue is interpreting the price movement.

Evaluation Checklist

  • Identify the instrument, exchange, session, reference period, timestamp, and data vendor.
  • Check whether the field is adjusted, unadjusted, regular-session only, or extended-hours inclusive.
  • Separate quote data from trade prints when reading last-sale, high, or low fields.
  • Confirm whether halts, auctions, holidays, or late reports affected the field.
  • Use consistent session definitions when comparing securities.

Common Mistakes

  • Comparing an extended-hours low with a regular-session high.
  • Treating last sale as a current executable quote.
  • Ignoring adjusted data after dividends, splits, or corporate actions.
  • Using “unchanged” without checking the reference price.
  • Comparing opening prices across markets with different auction rules.

For broader context, return to Quotes, Prices, and Market Data.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Price Fields

Open, high, low, last-sale, unchanged, and 52-week-range fields summarize different market observations whose meaning depends on timing and methodology.

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