Day traders, swing traders, position traders, and investors routinely use powerful tools to track the performance of their portfolios. Stock portfolio trackers are sophisticated computer programs that assess the price movements of each of the holdings in your portfolio. Besides that, these resources help you to reconcile differences between your long-term goals, and your portfolio’s performance against the market.
There are many challenges to overcome as a new trader on the scene. For one thing you have to decide how to populate your portfolio with the right financial instruments. This is no mean feat. It takes lots of research, pouring over charts, graphs, and data to pick out winners. You will find several resources particularly useful at this juncture, notably stock screeners and stock scanners. Fortunately, several portfolio trackers also offer you access to stock screeners.
What is a Portfolio, and Does Every Trader/Investor Have One?
A portfolio is a combination of investments in an account. It could be stocks, bonds, indices, commodities, forex, ETFs, crypto and options, or any combination thereof. A portfolio tracker is a useful resource for assessing the performance of your investments in terms of asset allocation. If you continually check your asset allocation, you may over trade, so the right balance needs to be struck.
Portfolio trackers can be assessed in terms of several factors, notably a user-friendly interface, the number of assets you can track in your portfolio, the cost of the portfolio tracker, and the speed with which the portfolio tracker loads and updates. Equally important is the degree to which your portfolio tracker can be integrated with your chosen trading platform. If your portfolio tracker is platform-specific, and you decide to switch elsewhere, it can be problematic.
Some portfolio trackers offer added value in the form of stock screeners. With a stock screener, you can set parameters for picking out specific stocks. These include price, volatility, market capitalization, sector, industry, and other factors. Portfolio trackers are designed to help you achieve your trading objectives. Experts state that portfolios should be checked at least once a month for short/medium-term investments. If you’re working with long-term investments, it’s best to check your portfolio every three months.
What Are Some of the Benefits to Using a Stock Portfolio Tracker?
Among others, stock portfolio trackers are particularly useful in terms of assessing multiple components of your portfolio simultaneously. You can easily determine the composition of your portfolio. These trackers also show snapshots of transaction statements at a specific point. Whenever you buy or sell stocks, all of the profit or loss statements come into play. A portfolio tracker is pretty useful in this regard.
Over the years, several notable portfolio trackers have made the headlines. The best stock portfolio trackers include the likes of Yahoo! Finance Portfolio Tracker, the SigFig Portfolio Tracker, StocksToTrade Portfolio Tracker, the Morningstar Portfolio Manager, and the Personal Capital system. Each system certainly has its merits, although some are much better than others. Before you rush to sign up with a premium (pay to use) portfolio tracker service, it is a good idea to sample the performance of these trackers with free accounts.
Nowadays, the best stock portfolio trackers offer additional benefits such as charts, graphs, technical analysis, live news, financial reports, et cetera. Some portfolio trackers even offer direct access to social media such as Twitter feeds, and Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These are particularly useful since you don’t need to search elsewhere on different tabs, browsers, or computers for relevant information.
As a trader, or an investor, your budget is sacrosanct. It is absolutely imperative that you track your budget in real-time to avoid any shortcomings that may occur. If you burn through your bankroll, you’re out of the game. This type of software keeps your eyes on the prize, so that you know exactly where you stand at any given time. By keeping a running record of all your investments, particularly the bad ones, you don’t need to hold onto poorly performing stocks. With portfolio trackers, you will see exactly which stocks are failing, and you will be able to divest them.
With that said, you can confidently make intelligent trading and investing decisions with powerful portfolio trackers as part of your overall trading repertoire.