Learning The Stock Market

what is “tape” in old stock market learning book?

in the old stock market learning book, the author always saying he listening carefully to the tape for the market stuff and blah blah
what is a tape he means in that time? (1980s, 1990s)
i think that tape must be some kind of old fashion stuff of stock market information?
what do people use now?

The stocks quotes outside the exchanges were broadcast on a system similar to teletype. They were more like telegraph. The quotes came out in a long strip called the ticker tape. Patented in 1860 by the Edison Company. You can see the roll of tape and some of the tape coming out the unit on the unit on the left in this picture;

http://www.antiquecircus.com/html/tickers.html

This is also where the term “ticker tape parade” comes from. When there was a parade in New York the brokers would tear up the old ticker tape and throw it out the window as confetti.

The name has stuck although ticker tapes are long gone. The rolling or scrolling quotes of trades during the day is still called “The tape” because the information is the same, looks similar, and it still is produced one quote after another as if it was on a tape.

I hope that helps.

The Apprentice – Stock Market Traders – Training Live Sky News