Editing Ticker tape (section)

{{Short description|Digital communication media}}
{{Distinguish|News ticker}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Women in Waldorf-Astoria.jpg|thumb|Watching the ticker tape, 1918|alt=Watching the ticker tape, 1918]]

'''Ticker tape''' was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting [[stock]] price information over [[electrical telegraph|telegraph]] lines, in use from around 1870 to 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called a '''stock ticker''', which printed abbreviated company names as alphabetic symbols followed by numeric stock transaction price and volume information. The term "ticker" came from the sound made by the machine as it printed.

The ticker tape revolutionized financial markets, as it relayed information from trading floors continuously and simultaneously across geographical distances.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Handel|first=John|date=2021|title=The Material Politics of Finance: The Ticker Tape and the London Stock Exchange, 1860s–1890s|journal=Enterprise & Society|volume=23 |issue=3 |language=en|pages=857–887|doi=10.1017/eso.2021.3|issn=1467-2227|doi-access=free}}</ref> Paper ticker tape became obsolete in the 1960s, as television and computers were increasingly used to transmit financial information. The concept of the stock ticker lives on, however, in the scrolling electronic tickers seen on brokerage walls and on news and financial television channels.

Ticker tape stock price telegraphs were invented in 1867 by [[Edward A. Calahan]], an employee of the [[American Telegraph Company]] who later founded [[The ADT Corporation]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Technical Analysis: The Complete Resource for Financial Market Technicians|publisher=FT Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I5SgX5q5sQEC&q=Edward+A+Calahan+and+ticker+tape&pg=PA201|isbn=978-0-13-705944-7|date=2010-11-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Picker |first=Leslie |date=February 16, 2016 |title=ADT in $6.9 Billion Deal to Sell Itself to Apollo Buyout Firm |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/business/apollo-global-management-to-buy-adt-for-6-9-billion.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref>