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I have started reading financial information. I see mention of stocks reaching "daily highs", "monthly highs" and so on.
What is the exact of these descriptions? What is a daily low or a monthly high exactly?
EDIT: For example, if from Jan. 1 to 31st the highest "daily high" of any day of that month occurred on Jan. 12 and was $180. Should I expect the monthly high to also be $180?
The high/low for any given period (daily/monthly/52-week) should be the highest or lowest price that the security traded at during that period.
You would expect then that if you looked at a year's worth of daily high/low data you should see that the lowest daily low should match the low for the month it occurred in as well as the low for the year.
From previous analysis on pricing data I can tell you that small inconsistencies are not uncommon, but in general you would expect that they aggregate from the daily values to calculate the monthly or 52-week data.
I agree with the other answers, but sometimes the statistic you see adds the word close:
In those cases they aren't looking at the intra-day prices but only at the price when the market closes each day. That can mean the the highest close for the month may not occur on the same day as the highest price for the month.
A daily high or low is the highest or lowest price a stock or other investment or item has reached that day; a monthly high or low is the same for a month.
Caution: The high/low price relates to a trade.
In the case you sold a put to capture its time value as of the date you sold it when the put was no where near in the money, the option contract could, at some future date, be executed during a market crash!
If you sold an out-of-the-money covered call contract, during a market sharp rise, your stock could be called away (sold!) by someone who purchased the call contract and wants delivery of the stock.
Both events are trades that may occur at the respective market low (or high).
