There are a number of ways to monitor your investment. Reports are in available daily in the major newspapers and on news bulletins throughout the day, and you can also monitor in real-time online.

You can either look at stock market indices, such as the Dow Jones, or at individual share prices. You can find out the last closing price, and the daily high and low price, to see how much it's changed during the day. You'll see a number written by the side of the company name or symbol showing how much the stock has increased or decreased by. For example, 16> means an increase of sixteen cents, or 16< would be a decrease of the same value.

Stock market indices have a set score that they work by, and so an increase or decrease of 16 would be sixteen points on the index, not sixteen cents.