It is a technique used to register and show any change, up or down, in the price of a stock or broadly speaking any traded security. Information relating to stock trading is projected on a ticker tape. Traders and investors watch ticker tapes to have a quick idea about changes in stock prices over time. In old days, ticker tapes were real tapes: narrow strips of paper on which information was printed in a shorthand format. Towards the end of twenties century (1996), tapes turned into real-time electronic tickers to provide instant transaction data. Nowadays, all figures reported instantly on TVs and websites are still said to be running on ticker tapes, though the actual tapes are no longer in use.

The ticker tape was invented by Edward A. Calahan (an employee of the American Telegraph Company) in 1867. In 1871, Thomas Edison improved and patented it so it was brought to the realm of mainstream trading. It was a precursor to the telegraph machine.