Whether an investor owns a stock position or trades options, futures, or commodities, he/she is always interested in the current value of his/her position. The best way to discover the current value is to go to the website of your brokerage account. That is the one place where you can be certain that your position is exactly as you remember (sadly many people cannot remember numerical items accurately), but you will also find the current price (not delayed) of all options and position value.


Option owners get even more information because the broker (almost always) supplies a good picture of current risk and reward parameters.

It is important for traders to keep apprised of the Greeks associated with their positions because that data describes the risk -- as well as the possible reward -- from owning any position. Those Greeks can be found only through your brokerage account.

Other places to find market quotes

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)  offers access to 20-minute delayed quotes.

Avoid using any of the online financial websites (such as YAHOO Finance or MSN Money because the quotes may not be updated often. They have also been know to be inaccurate.

Do not use newspapers for market information. The data is too old and often inaccurate for your purposes.