okay, here it is. im going to try as best i can to explain my problem. i am researching stocks for an economic project. one of the companies i am researching is google inc. (GOOG). i do not know how to find the value after the first closing. an example of what i am trying to ask:PBG: Pepsi Bottling GroupDate: 11/27/06Shares: 159Close: 31.35Value: 4984.65Date: 11/28/06Shares: 159Close: 31.29Value: 4975.11ok, that is the example. as you can see the value decreased on the very next day by 9.54. why did this decrease occur??? and why by 9.54?and if the original amount invested was 5000, why did the 5000 decrease by 15.35???BTW, these are real numbers (but the money is imaginary)if you need to check for yourself, go to Yahoo! Finance or another financial website. please help, i truly do not understand

What if I were to tell you that no one really knows exactly why? The answer that you would most likely receive is that there was less demand for the stock on the 28th than there was on the 27th or maybe more supply or maybe a little of both. Stock prices fluctuate second by second or maybe I should say transaction by transaction. If you were to look at the prices that a particular stock were to sell at on any given day you might possibly see that there would be as much as a 3 point spread or perhaps even more during the day. The price swings can be very volitile at times and many times for no apparent reason. It is all based on what buyers are willing to pay and seller willing to take.

The market isn't as complicated as "advisers" would have you believe. The market goes up because there are more buyers than sellers. It goes down because there are more sellers than buyers.As to your question. PBG when down but .06 from 11/27 to 11/28 159 shares times the six cent lower per share cost equals 9.54.I am not sure what you are asking about GOOG. If you are looking for a qoute, the easy way is on google. type in guote GOOG. It will be 15 to 20 minutes delayed like all free quote sites, but it saves plowing to get there :)